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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note
+
+Page 23—the word ‘redpoles’ have been left as originally spelt.
+
+Page 62—presbyterian changed to Presbyterian.
+
+The Footnotes have been changed to a numeric order and placed at
+the end of paragraphs they relate to.
+
+The book cover is labelled - “Labrador and its people, Grenfell”,
+whereas the book is officially entitled, “Vikings of to-day, or
+life and medical work among the fishermen of Labrador.”
+
+
+
+
+VIKINGS OF TO-DAY
+
+
+[Illustration: S.S. PRINCESS MAY.]
+
+
+
+
+    VIKINGS OF TO-DAY
+
+    OR LIFE AND MEDICAL WORK
+    AMONG THE
+    FISHERMEN OF LABRADOR
+
+
+    BY
+
+    WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.R.C.S.E., L.R.C.P.
+    _Holder of the Board of Trade Certificate of Competency
+    as Master Mariner_
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED FROM
+    ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+    NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
+    _Publishers of Evangelical Literature_
+
+
+    Dedicated
+
+    BY KIND PERMISSION TO
+
+    HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF YORK,
+
+    _whose practical and gracious interest in the welfare of
+    these far-off “Toilers of the Deep” has served in
+    no small way to assist this enterprise, and to
+    fire with loyal affections the hearts of
+    England’s sons across the sea_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+BY FREDERICK TREVES, F.R.C.S.,
+
+_Surgeon to the London Hospital. Examiner in Surgery at the University
+of Cambridge. Chairman of the Hospital Committee of the Mission to Deep
+Sea Fishermen._
+
+
+At the present time—near to the close of the nineteenth century—we
+are being constantly reminded, with somewhat unpleasant persistence,
+that the human race is degenerating and that the changes of decay are
+most marked among the most civilised people. It is among the young
+men especially that these unwelcome signs of the times are assumed to
+be the more noticeable. It is claimed that the splendid physique and
+the heroic courage of the British race are both deteriorating, and
+that those who seek for the time of noble deeds and sturdy hearts must
+turn back to the days of Elizabeth—to the stirring times of Drake and
+Raleigh.
+
+There is said to be no longer a field for that pluck and daring, or for
+that determination and persistency, which at one period made the name
+of the British famous throughout the world.
+
+It would be idle, in this place, to inquire into the substance of these
+moanings and regrets, and it would be reasonable perhaps to allow
+that there may be some real or apparent element of truth in these
+lamentations over the man of the present.
+
+Be this as it may, it will be agreeable to those who are most concerned
+in these forebodings to turn to the record contained in this volume,
+while those who view with some disgust the fashionable youth of the
+day, with his many effeminacies and affectations, will find in the
+pages which follow some wholesome relief to their distaste.
+
+Dr. Grenfell’s narrative will take the reader away from the heated,
+unnatural and debilitating atmosphere of the modern city, from the
+enervated crowd, from the pampered, self-indulgent colonies of men and
+women who make up fashionable society, and will carry him to a lonely
+land where all conventionalities vanish, and where man is brought into
+contact with the simplest elements of life and with the rudimentary
+problems of how to avoid starvation and ward off death from cold.
+
+The present volume deals with a land of desolation, with a country
+hard, relentless, unsympathetic and cruel, where, among fogs and
+icebergs, a handful of determined men are trying to hold their own
+against hostile surroundings and to earn a living in defiance of dreary
+odds.
+
+When the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen resolved to send an expedition
+to Labrador, it was evident that the man to go with it was Grenfell.
+He was well known both at Oxford and in London as a hardy athlete; he
+was a skilled and able surgeon; he was profoundly interested in Mission
+work; and the sea had for him that magical attraction which a few
+centuries ago emptied nearly every little cove and fishing hamlet in
+Cornwall and Devon of its heartiest men, and carried them over the high
+seas to the ends of the earth.
+
+Grenfell went, and the good work of the Mission was established on the
+Labrador. It was no little matter to bring into the hard and desperate
+life of the Labrador fishermen a touch of kindly and practical sympathy
+from the old country. It was no little matter to travel for many
+hundreds of miles along a grim, inhospitable coast, where buoys and
+beacons are unknown and where there is scarcely a bay or island which
+has not been the scene of some lonely disaster.
+
+It will be seen from this book that the race of Vikings is not
+yet extinct, on the one hand, and that on the other the spirit of
+enterprise and daring is not yet lost to the English people, and that
+the modern rover of the sea differs from his predecessor in little save
+the motive of his expedition.
+
+Those who know how to value the comforts of an English home, and who
+can appreciate the quiet content and the beauty of an English village,
+will be induced by this book to feel no little sympathy for those whose
+lives are cast among the dreary islands and deserted bays of Labrador.
+
+  FREDERICK TREVES.
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR’S PREFACE
+
+
+This book is intended to give a general account of the country and
+people of Labrador, and to summarize the efforts made by the council
+of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, during the past three years,
+to brighten the lives of the many brave toilers of the sea on that
+desolate coast.
+
+I have avoided the use of scientific terms, and have ventured to quote
+from some of the few books on the subject without the permission of the
+authors. Amongst these are Dr. Nansen’s _Eskimo Life_, Mr. Packard’s
+_The Labrador Coast_, Dr. Harvey’s _Newfoundland, the Oldest British
+Colony_, Crantz’s _Explorations in Greenland_, Hinde’s _Explorations in
+Labrador_, Cartwright’s _Journals_, Rev. J. Moreton’s _Life and Work in
+Newfoundland_.
+
+The universal kindness and hospitality extended to the Mission Staff in
+Labrador, Newfoundland and Canada, and the almost unlimited scope for
+work, have made these three years, three of the most enjoyable in our
+lives.
+
+To his Excellency the Governor of Newfoundland Sir Terence O’Brien,
+K.C.M.G., Chairman of the St. Johns Committee, among many others, our
+warmest thanks are due.
+
+The illustrations in this volume are from photographs taken on “Barnet
+Plates” kindly presented to the Society by Messrs. Elliot & Fry.
+
+  WILFRED T. GRENFELL.
+
+ _March, 1893._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                        PAGE
+
+    CHAPTER I.
+
+    THE COUNTRY                           1
+
+
+    CHAPTER II.
+
+    NATURAL FEATURES                     10
+
+
+    CHAPTER III.
+
+    OF THE BIRDS AND LARGER FISHES       17
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV.
+
+    OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS           28
+
+
+    CHAPTER V.
+
+    WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK     40
+
+
+    CHAPTER VI.
+
+    DO PEOPLE LIVE IN LABRADOR?          50
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII.
+
+    JUST HOW FISH ARE CAUGHT             66
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    THE TRUCK SYSTEM                     76
+
+
+    CHAPTER IX.
+
+    RESULTS OF THE FIRST VISIT           85
+
+
+    CHAPTER X.
+
+    OUR SECOND SEASON                   102
+
+
+    CHAPTER XI.
+
+    OUR VOYAGE CONTINUED                114
+
+
+    CHAPTER XII.
+
+    CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE         131
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    ON DOGS AND DIFFICULTIES            143
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIV.
+
+    ON SEALS AND SEALERS                157
+
+
+    CHAPTER XV.
+
+    ON THE ESQUIMAUX                    174
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVI.
+
+    THE DEEDS OF HEROES                 194
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVII.
+
+    WE APPEAL FOR CANADIAN SYMPATHY     202
+
+
+    APPENDICES.
+
+    _A._ SOME MEDICAL STATISTICS        213
+
+    _B._ SPIRITUAL AGENCIES IN LABRADOR 218
+
+    _C._ TESTIMONIES TO THE WORK        221
+
+    _D._ POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE          235
+
+    _E._ THE FISHING SCHOONERS          238
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                PAGE
+
+  S.S. _PRINCESS MAY_ _Frontispiece_
+
+  ENTRANCE TO ST. JOHNS HARBOUR                   5
+
+  A SHOAL OF CAPLIN JUMPING OUT ON TO THE BEACH  10
+
+  ICEBERG IN AUGUST OFF TUB HARBOUR              17
+
+  MY FIRST CARIBOU AND GUIDE                     21
+
+  ESKIMO BOYS                                    28
+
+  A BEAVER                                       33
+
+  THE ALBERT IN BATEAUX HARBOUR                  45
+
+  HUDSON BAY COMPANY’S POST AT RIGOLETTE         50
+
+  FIELDS OF FISH DRYING IN THE HARBOUR           53
+
+  BOAT RETURNING FROM THE TRAP                   66
+
+  SNUG HARBOUR                                   69
+
+  CARTWRIGHT STAFF                               76
+
+  A VISIT FROM ESKIMO                            85
+
+  MORAVIAN STATION, HOPEDALE 89
+
+  THE _PRINCESS MAY_ IN HAMILTON INLET          102
+
+  INTERIOR OF MALE WARD, INDIAN HARBOUR         105
+
+  A NEWFOUNDLANDER’S HUT, LABRADOR              114
+
+  INTERIOR OF INDIAN HARBOUR HOSPITAL           117
+
+  THE S.S. _PRINCESS MAY_ IN MERCHANTMAN HARBOUR 131
+
+  AN ESKIMO FAMILY, HOPEDALE                    137
+
+  TEAM OF DOGS IN HARNESS                       143
+
+  ESKIMO FAMILY                                 151
+
+  THE S.S. _SIR DONALD_                         157
+
+  ESKIMO ON AN ISLAND NEAR OKKAK                165
+
+  ESKIMO IN REINDEER TENT, OKKAK                174
+
+  TAKEN FROM AN ESKIMO GRAVE AT LONG ISLAND     181
+
+  ESKIMO BRASS BAND                             205
+
+
+
+
+VIKINGS OF TO-DAY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+_THE COUNTRY_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+It is said that a recent trial, over a dispute about the fishery of
+a small natural harbour in Labrador, called Tub Harbour, had reached
+its third day, when his lordship, leaning over the desk, whispered to
+counsel, “Where is Labrador”? Not to be caught, however, the counsel
+whispered back, “In Tub Harbour, my lord.” Geography, it seems, is a
+sadly neglected science.
+
+Such being the case, I have ventured to describe the general features
+of the country in the terse, accurate, graphic, and authoritative
+words of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
+
+“Labrador, properly so called,” says the _Encyclopædia_, “is the
+peninsular portion of North America, bounded by the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, the North Atlantic, Hudson Straits, Hudson Bay, and vaguely
+defined towards the S.W. by Rupert’s River, Mistassini River, and
+Bersiamits River. Its greatest length is 1,100 miles, its greatest
+breadth 700 miles. The area is approximately 420,000 square miles, that
+is, as large as the British Isles, France, and Austria. The coast from
+Blanc Sablon, a spot 85 miles up the Straits of Belle Isle, to Cape
+Chidley at the entrance to Hudson Bay straits, and all the off-lying
+islands, with the country inland about 70 miles, are under the
+government of Newfoundland. The rest is part of the province of Quebec,
+under Canadian rule.”
+
+Sterile and forbidding it lies among fogs and icebergs, famous only
+besides for dogs and cod. “God made this country last,” says an old
+navigator. “He had no other view in end than to throw together here the
+refuse of His materials as of no use to mankind.”
+
+“As a permanent abode of civilized man,” says the _Encyclopædia
+Britannica_, “Labrador is, on the whole, one of the most uninviting
+spots on the face of the earth. A vast tableland occupies much of the
+interior. This plateau, says Professor Hind, is pre-eminently sterile,
+and where the country is not burned, caribou moss covers the rocks,
+with stunted spruce, birch, and aspens in the hollows and deep ravines.
+The whole is strewed with an infinite number of boulders often three
+and four deep. Language fails to paint the awful desolation of the
+tableland of the Labrador peninsula. The Atlantic coast is the edge of
+a vast solitude of rocky hills, split and blasted by frosts, and beaten
+by waves. Headlands, grim and naked, tower over the waters—often
+fantastic and picturesque in shape—while miles and miles of rocky
+precipices or tame monotonous slopes alternate with stony valleys,
+winding away among the blue hills of the interior.”
+
+The cliffs rise from the ocean to a height of from 500 to 1,000 feet.
+The watershed of the interior plateau is on an average 150 miles from
+the coast, and rises considerably over 5,000 feet. Near Cape Chidley
+the hills are close to the sea, rising to the height of 6,000 feet,
+and the view from the sea is magnificent. A powerful current coming
+from Hudson Bay, combined with the great rise and fall of tide, renders
+navigation here very dangerous. A high, bare peak of syenite, inland
+from Cape Harrison, and known as Mount Misery, is visible seventy-five
+miles.
+
+We are accustomed to think of Columbus as discovering America, but it
+seems certain that about the year 1000, while Northman and Saxon were
+struggling for pre-eminence in this England of ours, bold Vikings from
+Iceland visited Labrador. In the Sagas of Erik the Red and of Thorfinn
+Karlsefne, we read of a strange land they visited and called Vinland[1]
+or Wineland, which most probably was Labrador.
+
+[Footnote 1: See Hon. L. G. Power’s paper on “Vinland,” read before the
+Nova Scotia Historical Society in 1887.]
+
+Now, it is needless to say grapes do not abound in Labrador, and we
+southerners should not describe it now as the “Land of Wine.” But
+we must remember that Erik came from Iceland, and was also possibly
+addicted to the proverbial fault of travellers. Moreover, when Erik
+returned from one of his voyages he called the land he had visited
+“Greenland,” not with reference to its nature, because Biarni, a
+contemporary voyager, describes it as a land of “mountains and high
+ice hills,” but “he called it Greenland because, quoth he, people
+will be attracted thither if the land has a good name.” An amusing
+incident, which I quote from Mr. Power’s paper, arose out of this. When
+Thorfinn Karlsefne and Snorri were making an endeavour to colonize the
+“Vinland” they most inappropriately ran short of provisions. Now it
+so happened they had with them Thorhall, the hunter. “He was a large
+man and strong, black and like a giant, silent and foul-mouthed in his
+speech, and always egged on Erik to the worst; he was a bad Christian;
+he was well acquainted with uninhabited parts. Thorhall now suddenly
+disappeared. They had previously made prayers to God for food, but
+it did not come so quick as they thought their necessities required.
+They searched after Thorhall three days, and found him on the top
+of a rock; there he lay, and looked up in the sky and gaped with both
+nose and mouth, and murmured something. They asked him why he had gone
+there. He said it was no business of theirs. They bade him come home
+with them, and he did so. Soon after, came there a whale, and they
+went thither and cut it up, and no one knew what sort of whale it
+was; and when the cook dressed it, they ate it, and all became ill in
+consequence. Then said Thorhall: “The red bearded was more helpful than
+your Christ; this have I got now for my verses that I sung to Thor, my
+protector. Seldom has he deserted me. But when they came to know this
+they cast the whole whale into the sea, and resigned their case to God.
+Then the weather improved, and it was possible to row out fishing, and
+they were not then in want of food, for wild beasts were caught on the
+land, and fish in the sea, and eggs collected on the island.” Now, when
+Thorhall bore water to the ship, and drank, then sang he this song:—
+
+    “People told me when I came
+      Hither, all would be so fine;
+    The good Wineland, known to fame,
+      Rich in fruits and choicest wine;
+    Now the water pail they send
+      To the fountain I must bend,
+    Nor from out this land divine
+      Have I quaffed _one drop_ of wine.”
+
+[Illustration: Entrance to St. Johns Harbour.]
+
+And when they were ready, and hoisted sail, then chanted Thorhall—
+
+
+    “Let our trusty band
+    Haste to Fatherland;
+    Let our vessel brave
+    Plough the angry wave;
+    While those few who love
+    Wineland, here may rove,
+    Or, with idle toil
+    Fetid whales may boil,
+    Here on Furderstrand
+    Far from Fatherland.”
+
+So that Vinland, in the year 1000, to which this voyage had been made
+because “the people of Brattahliel began to talk much about it,”
+saying, “a voyage thither ought to be particularly profitable by
+reason of the fertility of the soil,” appears to have turned out no
+better than we found Labrador in 1891. The famous log-books of George
+Cartwright,[2] written about 1790, give a more reliable account of
+the country, and he appears at first to have found it profitable to
+make voyages thither. The animals, and not the vegetables, engaged his
+attention, and he would have made a remunerative business of it had
+not first pirates and then privateers despoiled him of his ships, and
+outfits, and wares.
+
+[Footnote 2: _Journals of George Cartwright._]
+
+In Labrador now, work as he may, one man cannot keep the wolf from the
+door—the Eskimo and natives of the coast, the mountaineer and hunter
+Indians of the interior, and the white settlers, are alike often face
+to face with starvation. The two former are rapidly dying out, while
+among the latter it is only where a settler has grown-up sons to work
+with him, and a good supply of stock in boats, nets, traps and guns to
+help him, that he can make anything approaching to what we in England
+should consider a respectable living. Even with these helps, and with
+steady, hard work, and with sound health, he seldom can hope to lay up
+store against times of misfortune. True in England the poor often see
+hard times, and have to face occasionally poverty and hunger. Moreover,
+as Richard Whitbourne, that plucky British sea-dog, says,[3] “It hath
+beene in some winters so hard frozen, aboue London bridge near the
+court, that the tenderest faire ladies and gentlewomen that are in any
+part of the world, who have beheld it, and great numbers of people,
+have there sported on the ice many dayes, and have felt it colder
+there, than men doe here, that live in Newfoundland.” Yet we must take
+into consideration that here absolute want is the exception, there the
+rule.
+
+[Footnote 3: Richard Whitbourne.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+_NATURAL FEATURES_
+
+
+Labrador rocks are of the oldest formation (Laurentian gneiss), and
+destitute of remains of animal or plant life; so that they, too,
+maintain the general harmony of desolation. On the south shore, lower
+Silurian sandstones, red syenite, and one splendid mass of basalt,
+known as the “Devil’s Table,” crop out.
+
+[Illustration: A shoal of caplin jumping out on to the beach.]
+
+The action of ice and fire are shown in marvellous manners on this
+weird coast. Not only is every rock, mountain, and pinnacle crowned
+with countless boulders, which seem but to need a shake to set myriads
+tumbling down every incline, but the whole coast is carved and
+chiselled in a wondrous manner by a glacial period that lasted much
+longer than in Europe; while the fierce frost of winter has blasted
+mighty rocks, and left, wherever a resting-place could be found, huge
+fragments, jagged and rough, “hurled aloft, as they appear, by the
+hands of Titans.”[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: Packard’s _The Labrador Coast_.]
+
+That long before the ice period volcanic fires helped to mould the
+hills, is well shown by the out-crop here and again of trap rocks.
+Especially near the hospital at Indian Harbour is this the case, where
+the light and polished quartzite rocks are capped with black trap rocks
+which have overflowed them. These rocks are marked with deep half-moon
+shaped cuts, running east and west—done by ice—and “showing that
+Hamilton Inlet, which at the mouth is forty miles wide, was once filled
+with an enormous glacier.”[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: _Ibid._]
+
+Near Hopedale a beautiful blue and bronze iridescent felspar is found.
+It is called labradorite,[6] and when polished glistens in the sunlight
+like a peacock’s feather. It is used for brooches, and occasionally
+for ornamenting buildings. We dropped anchor one night near an island
+almost entirely composed of this.
+
+[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, gives fuller information.]
+
+Copper pyrites, mica, asbestos, with salts of some of the rarer metals,
+such as yttrium and rubidium, have been found on the coast. One mining
+company works for labradorite during the summer.
+
+In the inlets and along the rivers some trees and arctic plants are
+found. These are more especially spruces, larches, mosses, and lichens.
+Birches, aspen, silver fir, willow, cherry, and mountain ash, however,
+exist in favourable spots. I have seen good 60 ft. spars from the
+end of Sandwich Bay. The trees get more and more dwarfed as one goes
+north, and beyond the 59th parallel the merest scrub exists. The
+botanical aspect, however, which chiefly interests the settlers, is
+the number of edible berries, which form a valuable addition to their
+articles of diet. These are bakeapples or cloudberries, cranberries,
+whortleberries, bilberries, tea-berries, gooseberries, raspberries,
+and currants. They are preserved in water, or in molasses when it is
+obtainable, against the winter.
+
+Very few vegetables can be grown, though with care, up the inlets a
+few potatoes, cabbages, and turnip tops have been raised. The Moravian
+missionaries have to cover their vegetables up at night to keep them
+warm. This lack of vegetables is tritely expressed in the diary of a
+gentleman wintering on the north coast; the entry describing his diet
+runs as follows—
+
+  —— ditto.
+  —— ditto.
+  —— ditto.
+  —— ditto.
+  —— found a blade of grass. Eat the whole of it.
+
+Cartwright (1786) adds a list of his own of indigenous vegetable
+delicacies—
+
+  1. Young osier leaves.
+  2. Red dock leaves.
+  3. Scurvy grass.
+  4. Alexander, or wild celery.
+  5. Indian salad.
+  6. Alpine plant.
+  7. Fathen.
+
+There is a charming catholicity about this old sea-dog and trapper.
+
+The tips of the young spruce branches are used for making a
+non-intoxicating beer, being boiled with molasses. When other tea gives
+out, the leaves of _uva ursi_ are used. These are known as Labrador
+tea.[7]
+
+[Footnote 7: _Ledum latifolium_ is also called Labrador tea.]
+
+The Saga of Lief Erikson thus describes a conversation between the
+Viking and his old henchman Tyrker, who, for two or three days, had
+wandered from the party: “Why wert thou so late, my fosterer, and
+separated from the party?” “I have not been much further off, but still
+I have something new to tell of: I found grapes and vines.” “But is
+that true, my fosterer?” quoth Lief. “Surely is it true,” replied he;
+“for I was bred up where there is no want of either vines or grapes.”
+They said that next day they _filled their long boat_ with grapes. But
+we must, I fear, consider this a “traveller’s licence,” as we must also
+when old Richard Whitbourne describes the wild berries of Newfoundland.
+“There the summer naturally produceth out of the fruitful woombe of
+the earthe, without the labour of man’s hand, great plenty of greene
+pease and fitches faire, round, full and wholesome ... great store
+of hay also.... Then have you here strauberries red and white, and
+as faire rasberries and gooseberries as there be in England; as also
+multitudes of bilberries, which are called by some whortes, and many
+other delicate berries, which I cannot name, in great abundance.
+
+  Peares,
+  Sowre cherries,
+  Filberds,
+
+of which divers times eating their fill, I never heard of any man whose
+health was thereby any way impaired.”
+
+The rivers contain salmon for about one month in the summer. These
+seem, however, to be very susceptible to cold, and are seldom taken
+north of Hopedale. In seasons when the drift ice remains long on the
+coast the number of salmon caught is always largely diminished. They
+seldom take a fly. On the other hand the trout are very voracious, very
+large and numerous, and will rise at any bait.[8] They remain all the
+year, and are easily caught in winter by cutting a hole in the ice and
+letting down a hook with a bit of raw meat. The women largely replenish
+their larder in this way. Cod are far and away the most important of
+all Labrador products at present—they are called “fish,” and even in
+legal terms are the only denizens of the sea recognised as “fish.” In
+summer they come into shallow water, first in pursuit of a small fish
+known as “caplin,” and then remain probably to spawn before seeking the
+deeper water in winter. It is unlikely that in their migrations they
+cross any large portion of the Atlantic.
+
+[Footnote 8: There is a large salmon-trout fishery at Ungava.]
+
+The caplin come to the shallow water in countless myriads to spawn.
+They are somewhat like a sardine, only a little larger. At times they
+blacken the water, and so crowd one another as they swim along the
+very edge of the water in calm weather that every ripple of the sea
+leaves numbers struggling on the strand, till at times the whole beach
+is hidden by dead and dying fish. Further north these caplin visit the
+shore later in the year. They are followed always by immense numbers of
+cod. I have seen cod also so thick that even in deep water there seemed
+no room for them, their backs being constantly out of water. This is
+called the “caplin school,” and on the catch of cod during their visit
+the success of a whole fishery will depend.
+
+While the “caplin school” lasts the most intense excitement exists. The
+men will work day and night, with scarcely an hour in twenty-four for
+sleep, even eating their meals in their boats. The cod at this time
+will not take bait, and are caught in traps in the way described in a
+subsequent chapter, or are hauled in a huge seine, by which a “school”
+is surrounded. Alas, sometimes so many icebergs are driven inshore,
+that the precious time slips by without any opportunity of fishing,
+though all the men, with boats and gear, are waiting on shore in the
+greatest anxiety to be “up and at the fish.” The caplin are sometimes
+smoked and kept for food, but usually are dried on the rocks for dog
+food in winter. Messrs. Munn, of Harbour Grace, have tinned them like
+sardines, and they are then excellent eating. The sea also affords
+“hair” seals; these are caught in nets in the fall of the year, or are
+shot swimming in the bays in summer time. Whales are common on the
+coast, but the people now have no means of taking them. I saw two small
+right-whales which had been washed up on the beach, and also one very
+large sperm whale. Fourteen hundred gallons of oil was taken from his
+head. So long ago as the 15th century, before the discovery of America,
+Basque whalers are said to have fished these waters. In the far north,
+at Ungava, the Hudson’s Bay people make a regular attempt to intercept
+the large schools of porpoises. At times they will get as many as 150,
+some individuals weighing a ton each. They are used for their skin
+and fat, and their flesh for dog food. This is put raw into old flour
+barrels, and then buried in the ground, usually in June, and in October
+it will be dug up again. Decomposition will have made the flesh swell
+up, and the barrels will have burst. As, however, the whole is now
+frozen, the wood can be removed, and the barrel-shaped masses of frozen
+and unsavoury flesh are stored away for the dogs’ repasts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_OF THE BIRDS AND LARGER FISHES_
+
+
+[Illustration: Iceberg in August off Tub Harbour.]
+
+Herrings were once in great numbers on the coast, and were so much
+larger and fatter than our English herring, that at times knaves have
+found it worth while to imitate the “Labrador Herring” brand. Of late
+years they have failed almost entirely to visit the coast, and fishery
+stations have had to be abandoned where once the sea was “dry with fat
+herring.” As many as 4,000 barrels have been surrounded with the seine
+at one shoot of the net. The only other common fish is the sculpin,
+pig-fish, or grubby. He is a voracious scavenger, and, in foul
+companionship with his friend the flounder, may be seen sweltering on
+the rotting heaps of offal which surround every Labrador fish-stage. He
+appears to have no feelings, but one all-absorbing idea—“to swallow”
+with his stupendous mouth. I have caught on the sharp-pronged jigger,
+when fishing for “tom-cod” for breakfast, the same sculpin three times
+in succession, until for self-protection it was necessary to club him
+with a rowing pin.
+
+The sleeper shark also infests the coast, and in hundreds gather to
+devour the dead bodies of the baby seals left by the sealers in the
+spring. It has a callous nature, and Scoresby tells us, on one occasion
+while one was feeding on a dead whale, and scooping out at each bite
+pieces as large as a man’s head, a sailor pierced it through with a
+scythe knife. It took little notice, however, and went on feeding in
+exactly the same spot. Mackerel appear in the straits of Belle Isle
+only.
+
+Two series of submarine banks lie off the Labrador shores, over which
+it is shallow enough to fish with small boats and hand lines. These
+have been estimated to cover an area of over 7,000 square miles. Over
+these the northern current spreads countless animalculæ, in the form
+of a vast ocean of living slime. This food attracts the bait fishes
+especially, and they, in turn, attract the cod. No doubt also, this is
+the attraction to the numerous whales, whose loud “blowing,” as they
+laze along in the sunshine or hunt fish for their livelihood, alone
+breaks at times the death-like silence in the lonely bays and inlets.
+A large sperm whale, 70 feet long, was towed into Battle Harbour our
+first year. This variety has large teeth, which are used by ivory
+cutters. A Captain Clarke, writing in 1766, narrates how a sperm whale
+charged one of his boats; it struck the bow with such violence that
+it threw his son, who was harpooning, some feet into the air. The
+whale turned and caught him in her devouring jaws as he came down. He
+was heard to scream, and part of his body was seen hanging out of its
+mouth, when it “sounded.” A small but beautiful whale, “as white as a
+sheet,” is common on the coast. I have seen it caught in cod-traps.
+Its skin makes excellent leather. The hump-back whale, and more rarely
+the right-whale are also to be seen. The ferocious “thresher” whale
+also visits us. It has terrible teeth, and one variety has also a huge
+back-fin, six feet high, with which the fishermen say they have seen it
+beating its prey to death.[9] Captain Scammon tells us of an attack by
+three threshers on a huge cow-whale and her baby in a bay. “Like wolves
+they flew at her throat, dragging her under water, the others charging
+at her and leaping right over her. At last they killed the baby, and
+when it sank kept diving down and coming up with large pieces of its
+flesh. Meanwhile, the poor mother made her escape, leaving a long
+track of blood behind her.” I have fired from my boat at the grampus,
+but without success. Mr. Mackenzie, of the Hudson Bay Company, however,
+told me he was once standing up in his small boat, waiting for a seal,
+when he saw a grampus rising to the surface alongside. As its head
+emerged from the water, he fired straight at the blow-hole, with the
+result that the single explosive ball penetrated the animal’s brain,
+and he rolled over dead without a struggle. Not an unfortunate issue as
+far as the small boat was concerned.
+
+[Footnote 9: Goode’s _United States Fisheries_.]
+
+Pliny speaks of a whale 960 feet long! Another traveller’s license
+I fear. A hundred feet is, as far as I know, an outside limit. The
+whale-bone hangs from the roof of the mouth, is short in front and
+behind, and is at best some six feet long. It is scythe-shaped, and
+edged with long coarse fibres, which sweep over the huge soft tongue,
+filtering off the slime on which these whales live. Three hundred and
+fifty pieces are found on each side.
+
+The narwhale, with his long tusk, eight feet long, with which he pokes
+up the sea grass on which he feeds, was once common on this coast. Some
+say he uses the tusk to bore holes through the ice, and so get air to
+breathe. The tusk is really an incisor tooth, or two incisor teeth
+enormously prolonged, and twisted round one another. Where no wood is
+found the Eskimo hang their tents on these ivory rafters.
+
+[Illustration: My first Caribou, and Guide.]
+
+The sword-fish is a doubtful visitor, though he is taken off Greenland
+and on the American coast. Many are the authentic accounts of ships
+he has attacked and even sunk.[10] He will weigh as much as 600 lbs.,
+and Professor Owen says, “he strikes with the accumulated force of
+fifteen double-handed hammers, and its velocity is equal to that of
+swivel shot.” In 1864 one, for which a sailor was angling, stove a hole
+through the bottom of the ship _Dreadnought_, and so “the insurance
+company had to pay £600 because an ill-tempered fish objected to be
+hooked, and took revenge by running full tilt against copper sheathing
+and wood planking.” Also in 1864 Captain Atwood took from the stomach
+of a large shark a full-sized sword-fish, but the shark’s skin was
+pierced with a dozen holes, showing how much the dainty morsel had
+objected to being swallowed. Hanging with the armour of Christopher
+Columbus at Siena, in Spain, is a sword of this fish, said to be “taken
+from a _warrior_ they slew on nearing America.”
+
+[Footnote 10: Goode’s _United States Fisheries_.]
+
+The fowl of the air are a most important factor in Labrador life. Among
+many land birds that do occur, far the most important are the willow
+grouse and the spruce partridge. The former are large birds, tawny red
+in summer, and white as driven snow in winter.[11] At that season many
+depend on these birds to keep them from starvation, and even when a
+settler’s ammunition has all run out, he can sometimes noose them with
+string on the end of a long stick as they roost in the trees, so tame
+are they. Like Alexander Selkirk’s animals—
+
+[Footnote 11: The willow grouse very rarely take to the trees, the
+spruce partridge almost always.]
+
+  “They are so unacquainted with man
+  Their tameness is shocking to me.”
+
+A covey in a tree can be killed right out, if shot from the bottom
+upwards, so that the falling bird does not disturb the rest. A common
+entry of Cartwright’s[12] is, “Saw a covey of six grouse. Knocked off
+all their heads with my rifle.”[13]
+
+[Footnote 12: Cartwright’s _Journals_.]
+
+[Footnote 13: To economize powder, the settlers frequently shoot these
+birds with bows and arrows. The arrows are club-headed.]
+
+The willow grouse in heavy weather bury themselves in the snow, only
+the cock bird, who acts as sentry, keeping his head above ground
+to watch for an enemy. Besides these “spruce” grouse, thrushes,
+American robins, warblers, redpoles, snow buntings, sparrows, larks,
+woodpeckers, crows, hawks, and owls occur. The snowy owl is an
+exquisite white in winter, brown in summer, and a large bird. The jay,
+also, is very common, filling the woods with its cries. Now and again
+the beautiful gyrfalcon is seen, whilst the osprey, or sea eagle, also
+breeds on the coast. All these birds are American varieties, and differ
+slightly from our British species.
+
+There is a great wealth of sea-birds, and until the last two years
+the arctic curlew ranked first among these. I fear in Labrador we
+class all our animals in a descending order, with the flesh-pot as
+the basis. These curlew came north, in flocks which nearly darkened
+the air, in September, feeding on the numerous berries, and returned
+south in October. The last three years they have almost disappeared.
+The settlers say that, owing to their depredations on the American
+cornfields, poisoned wheat was laid out for them, and this led to their
+wholesale destruction. Their annual visit can be ill spared indeed.
+
+Perhaps one should mention next the Canada goose. Great numbers
+of these breed near the great lakes or ponds. They are largely
+graminivorous, and therefore do not combine the flavours of fish and
+flesh, which we find so unpleasant in the gulls and divers. It is
+usual, however, to catch these when young, and confine them in bounds,
+for in this way not only is the flesh rendered much sweeter to the
+palate, but since they grow very tame, they are used as decoys for
+other geese. One man last year anchored out by one leg his tame decoy
+goose, and so shot no less than thirty other geese. But, in his anxiety
+for more, unwittingly left his pet too long in the water, with the
+result that it died of cold; and so the goose with the golden—or in
+this case “feathered”—eggs was lost. It shows these birds do feel the
+cold. It is not waste to shoot a hundred geese the same day, for it is
+only necessary to hang them up in rows outside the house on nails, and
+they will remain frozen and fresh all winter.
+
+Both eider ducks and the king eiders abound on the coast. In huge
+flocks early in November they come to the south’ard, generally with
+a north-east wind, and then in quick succession flock after flock,
+taking almost all exactly the same line. Near Battle hospital is a
+barren, rocky point known as “Gunning” Point. Here, under the above
+circumstances, you can always find some half-dozen “Livyeres,” with
+long guns and dogs, waiting for the flocks. It is difficult to say
+whether the dogs or the guns are most remarkable. I measured one gun,
+six feet two inches long, and when it was discharged it was always an
+open question which end of it would do most damage, for the adventurous
+hunter always loaded it “ten fingers” deep. When a flock pass, all
+the guns are discharged simultaneously, and the ducks, which at times
+respond in showers, are nominally divided equally.
+
+But now comes the excitement. As a rule a huge Atlantic surf, with
+these north-east winds, breaks over the point, and the splendid pluck
+and endurance of the dogs is taxed to the uttermost. Dashing into the
+waves, I have seen them repeatedly hurled back, bruised and winded,
+high on to the ledges of rock, only to be dragged off by the return
+wave and once more pounded on to the rocks. To avoid this, the brave
+beasts hold on with the energy of despair, and many times have I noted
+their bleeding paws, and nails torn off in the unequal struggle. Yet
+they would at once return to the charge, and, waiting their chance,
+leap right over the breaking crest, and so get clear of the surf. Once
+they have seized a duck they never let it go, and I have often felt
+sorely tempted even to jump in and give the brave creatures a hand,
+when it seemed impossible for them to keep up the struggle any longer.
+Yet, after being lost to view, engulfed by a huge breaker, one would
+see soon a duck appear, and after it a dog’s head, still true to its
+hazardous duty. Sometimes, however, they are really lost.
+
+Petrels, loons, divers, gulls, guillemots, widgeon, teal, scoters,
+puffins, shanks, sandpipers and other waders abound. These are shot in
+the fall, and salted down for future consumption. Their eggs are also
+collected for eating; and though we found even the eggs of the domestic
+hen, when allowed to feed on fish remains, too highly flavoured to be
+appetizing, yet I have seen healthy babies flourishing on gulls’ eggs.
+Whitbourne, writing in 1612, speaks of the utility of the penguin—the
+great auk was common then. He says, “These penguins are bigge as geese,
+and flye not, for they haue but a short wing, and they multiply so
+infinitely upon a certain flat Iland, that men drive them from thence
+upon a boord into their boats by hundreds at a time; as if God had
+made the innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable
+instrument for the sustentation of man.” Then, as now, he says the
+“fishermen doe bait their hookes with the flesh,” and also that they
+were so fat that the men drew threads through under the skin and used
+them as candles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+_OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS_
+
+
+[Illustration: Eskimo Boys.]
+
+For food purposes among land animals the caribou, which closely
+resembles the reindeer, ranks first. These roam over the interior in
+great quantities, feeding on the very plentiful Iceland moss. In winter
+they scrape away the snow with their large cow-like hoofs to get at
+it. In Newfoundland they are very plentiful in the interior, and Mr.
+W. Tyrrell of Winnipeg told me, that on the west side of Hudson Bay
+he found thousands, so tame they would eat out of his hands. They
+migrate north in summer, and south in winter, due, says Rae, to their
+“sense of polarity,” but I should presume in search of food. They are
+difficult to find in the woods, for the colour of their skins varies
+with the seasons, and always closely resembles their surroundings.
+Unfortunately they are too far inland for the majority of settlers to
+reach.
+
+The stags have magnificent antlers, which are especially fine about
+October, the rutting season. With these they fight fiercely, going down
+on their knees, and striking with the powerful brow-antlers. I have
+seen several pairs of “locked horns” that have been picked up, the poor
+creatures having got these fixed and died side by side of starvation.
+
+A hunter this fall, having skinned a young stag he had killed, put the
+skin over him so that the horns, which were attached, came on his head.
+He then walked out towards a herd of does, over which a fine stag was
+keeping zealous watch as they grazed on the open marsh. They allowed
+him to come within range, and then the stag, mistaking him for a rival,
+actually charged down upon him.
+
+Polar bears are not uncommon, and five were killed this season near
+Cape Chidley. Captain Blandford, of the S.S. _Neptune_, told me that,
+having sent some men ashore for water in a strange harbour near Cape
+Chidley, they returned in great haste, calling for their guns, and
+shouting, “Bears!” They were soon perceived from the ship to be firing,
+shot after shot being heard in rapid succession, and great expectations
+were raised of bear steak for dinner. At last the hunters returned
+with downcast countenances. The bears proved to be only inflated heads,
+which some Eskimo were using as buoys for their lines.
+
+In one boat going out to their fish trap were seven men, six rowing,
+and the skipper standing on the stern seat, steering with an oar.
+
+Suddenly a large white bear was sighted swimming close to the boat.
+There was no gun on board, and yet the men were loath to lose so rich a
+prize. Chase was therefore given, and the skipper kept hurling at the
+bear the large two-pronged lead “jigger,” with a stout line attached.
+Each time he threw it the bear warded it off, striking it a smart blow
+with his fore-paw. At last one jigger came fast, and then another, till
+the bear, who seemed only bent on escape, and was now wearied with
+repeated diving, was hauled near the boat, and first clubbed with an
+oar, and then despatched with an axe.
+
+Black bears are very common. They are, as a rule, herbivorous, eating
+the wild berries, and insectivorous; but one night a settler I was
+staying with showed me the skin of a large bear he had just trapped.
+He was living at the mouth of a trout and salmon river, the entrance
+to which he barred with nets. Two bears happening to observe some fish
+struggling in the net on the surface of the water near the land were,
+I suppose, tempted to feloniously sample the unexpected windfall, and
+having once erred, continued their wild career. For the settler told
+me they learnt regularly to come down and haul his nets, dragging them
+to the land, and not only eating out the fish, but severely damaging
+the nets. But punishment had been meted out to one in the form of a
+charge of buckshot, to the other by a steel trap.
+
+Cartwright thus illustrates the power of this bear: “We discovered
+this morning the damage done by a polar bear to a cask of oil. It was
+of strong oak staves, well secured by thick, broad hoops of birch. Yet
+with one blow of his tremendous paw he had snapped off the four chime
+hoops and broken the staves short off.”
+
+The most valuable fur animals are the fox, otter, beaver, mink,
+marten, and lynx. Musk-rats, squirrel, and hares are also plentiful.
+The porcupine is not uncommon. One specimen I shot was larger than
+a sucking pig. The long black hair, which almost obscures the short
+quills, made it resemble a bear as it sat asleep on a bough at the top
+of a fir tree. A bullet through the head brought it down at once, but
+even when mortally wounded they will cling to the boughs, and you may
+have to fell the tree. I saw a dog one day worrying one. The porcupine,
+with its head well down, waited for the dog to come near, and then
+switched round his tail end, on which are most spikes, with lightning
+speed, hoping to leave some in his enemy’s nose. The quills are all
+barbed, so that they “work in.” In this way they will kill dogs,
+wolves, and foxes. A fox was found dead near Hopedale, its skin ruined
+by festering sores, which, on examination, showed the ends of the black
+and white quills. It is very amusing to see how easily it wards off an
+enemy by always turning its back to him! When the dog was tired out,
+the porcupine went up the nearest tree, had a good meal, and went to
+sleep on a bough.
+
+Black or “silver” fox skins are very valuable. For one good black skin
+I have known £170 given by a Russian nobleman. The average retail
+value of silver fox skins is nearly £50. Now the cunning of foxes is
+proverbial, but Cartwright tells us a story of vulpine ingenuity in a
+marten. One day he was going to travel a long distance, and desired
+to leave a deposit of food for his return journey. He feared to bury
+it, because foxes would be sure to find it, so climbing a tree he hung
+it by a string from one of the branches. Shortly after a marten came
+along, and espied the dainty morsel high over his head. Whether he had
+watched old Cartwright climbing, or whether it was an inspiration, the
+tale does not say, but in any case it climbed the tree also, gnawed
+through the string, and then, with an appetite whetted by the exercise,
+had a square meal at its leisure.
+
+[Illustration: A Beaver.]
+
+Walking one day through thick wood we came across a regular “pathway,”
+the trees having been felled to make travelling easy. A glance at the
+stumps showed that it was a road cut by beavers, to enable them to drag
+their boughs of birch along more easily. The pathway led to a large
+house on the edge of a lake, and, fortunately for us, the beaver was at
+home. There were other houses on an island in the lake, and below them
+all a large, strong dam, some thirty yards long, built the shape of a
+half-moon, and below this two more complete dams across the river that
+flowed out. The dams were made of large tree-trunks, with quantities
+of lesser boughs, and were many feet thick, and very difficult to
+break down. The houses were built half on land, half in the water. The
+sitting-room is upstairs on the bank, and so is the “crew’s” bedroom,
+and the front door made at least three feet below the surface to
+prevent being “frozen out” in winter, or, worse still, “frozen in.”
+
+The whole house was neatly rounded off, and so plastered with mud as to
+be warm and weather-proof. This is done by means of their trowel-like
+tails, which are also of great use in swimming. The house was so strong
+that even with an axe we could not get in without very considerable
+delay. In the deep pond they had dammed up, we found a quantity of
+birch poles pegged out. The bark of these forms their winter food, and
+is called “browse.” The beaver cuts off enough for dinner, and takes
+it into his house. Sitting up, he takes the stem in his fore paws,
+and rolls it round and round against his chisel-shaped incisor teeth,
+swallowing the long ribands of bark thus stripped off. While entering
+the house the stick often sets off a trap set for them. The trappers
+say they do this purposely. When surprised they retreat to holes in the
+bank, of which the entrances are hidden under water. These are called
+“hovels.”
+
+Beavers always work up wind when felling trees, and cut them on the
+water side, so that they fall into the pond if possible, and the
+wind helps to blow them home. This beaver we caught proved to be a
+hermit—at least he was living alone. He may have been a widower of
+unusual constancy. They do not destroy fish, their food in summer being
+preferably the stem of the water-lilies. Otters occasionally kill and
+eat beavers. When they call the beaver has to try and be “not at home.”
+Of the other animals I have not space to say much. The blue-grey hare
+is a large animal, and like all the others turns white in winter—so
+wonderfully does God remember all His creatures.
+
+The pretty little squirrel is very tame. Like a good sensible fellow
+he makes round holes in the ground, and hides enough berries for his
+“winter diet.”
+
+The climate of Labrador is rigorous in the extreme, in spite of
+the fact that in summer, especially in the inlets, the thermometer
+sometimes registers 75° and even 80° F. Icefields from Baffin’s
+Bay and Davis Strait block the coast from October to June, the sea
+freezing entirely over all along the shore. Over this all the winter
+travelling is done, but sometimes the commotion below so moves the
+ice up and down that a team of dogs with their sledge will only move
+backwards when a swell arises. The average temperature all the year
+round is at Hopedale 27° F., at Nain 22·5° F., that is a mean average
+temperature of 5° and 9·5° respectively of frost. During the months
+the sea is open, countless islands of ice are driven all along the
+coast, while snowslips often make the land dangerous. A settler, his
+two sons, and son-in-law were ascending the slope of an island near
+Sandwich Bay to witness the first break-up of the ice in spring, when
+an avalanche of snow buried all but one son, who was a few yards behind
+the rest. Rushing to where he saw his father last, and tearing away
+the hard-frozen snow with hand and foot, he came eventually on his
+father’s head, four feet below the surface. Though his father heard the
+son searching, he could neither stir nor shout to guide him, from the
+weight of snow over him. This man told me the sad story. The other two
+lads were lost.
+
+Storms of exceptional violence and of sudden onset occasionally visit
+the coast. The wind seems to blow from all quarters at once, hurling
+clouds of sea-water as dust, often mixed with icy spicules, far over
+the land. A few years ago a vessel in Black Tickle, lying at anchor
+near Gready, was carried up and left on the rocks twenty feet above
+high-water line; at the same time £4,000 of damage was done, in that
+one harbour alone, by all the stages with the summer’s voyage of fish
+and all the boats being suddenly washed away. It was then October, and
+snow was on the ground. All the survivors left as soon as possible. On
+returning next year an old man of this vessel was found dead beneath
+the snow, his hands crossed, his eyes bandaged. Evidently he had laid
+himself out for burial. On October 9, 1867, in one of these sudden
+gales, forty vessels were hurled on the rocks. Forty poor souls lost
+their lives, and fifteen hundred people were cast ashore.
+
+Again on October 26, 1885, in a similar hurricane 80 vessels were lost,
+70 lives, and 2,000 men, women, and children left on the coast. The
+Newfoundland Government had to send up special steamers to bring these
+people home.
+
+Easterly gales especially, as the water is deep, heave in a most
+wonderful ground-swell. Close to the land, I have in our little steamer
+been so low down in these great watery valleys, that, standing on deck,
+we could not see even the tops of the hills over the crest of the next
+wave. Admiral Bayfield says, “It bursts with fury right over islands
+thirty feet in height, sending sheets of foam and spray, sparkling in
+the sunbeams fifty feet up the sides of precipices.”
+
+One feature, however, of rare beauty is peculiar to these Arctic
+regions. I mean the Aurora Borealis. At times one radiant crown circles
+the zenith; at others, vast columns of light advancing across the
+heavens keep changing shape like battalions of men attacking, the
+varying uniforms of these flying squadrons resplendent with every
+shade of violet, red and gold; at others deadly pale phantoms creep
+ghost-like upwards from the northern horizon, till the whole space
+overhead is filled with quivering rays. Icebergs, till now invisible,
+reveal their baneful presence; but almost before the sailor has time to
+note their bearings, these transient glories are suddenly extinguished,
+and the sea and sky are once more plunged into darkness, all the more
+death-like for the contrast, so that men call it, “The dead at play.”
+The weird mirage also serves to add mystery to these regions. Often
+have we seen huge icebergs as if capsized, and hovering in the waves
+of ether over the stern realities below, as though kissing them and
+rejoicing in their power for evil.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Mountaineer Indians on the _Sir Donald_.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+_WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK_
+
+
+ON June 15, 1892, the good ship _Albert_, 97 tons register, and 151
+displacement, was towed out of Great Yarmouth Harbour, and amidst many
+farewells from wharves, quays and piers, spread her canvas for her
+first transatlantic voyage. Trimmer ship never left port bound on such
+a journey. Stout timbers, teakwood decks, iron hatches, new running
+gear—nothing had been forgotten—and in light airs of summer or whole
+gales in winter, I want no snugger vessel. The four voyages made by her
+at present, under the care of Captain Trezise and his crew of eight
+men, certainly deserve notice here.
+
+1892. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St. Johns, Nineteen days.
+
+Bound home. From St. Johns to Start Lighthouse. Twelve days.
+
+1893. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St. Johns. Seventeen days.
+
+Bound home. From St. Johns to Great Yarmouth. Twelve and a half days.
+
+Our best twenty-four hours’ work was 240 miles, registered on two
+harpoon logs. The fact that we registered under 100 tons, allowed us
+to carry an uncertificated mate—Skipper Joe White, so well known
+in the North Sea. It also made my certificate as a competent master
+of some practical use. After visiting the mission vessel _Edward
+Birkbeck_, at work among Manx and Irish fishermen off the south-west
+coast of Ireland, we followed the course taken by Cabot in his caravel,
+the _Matthew_, nearly 400 years ago, and made a landfall directly
+opposite St. Johns Harbour. Here a scene of the wildest confusion
+greeted us. The prosperous city we expected to see had been almost
+blotted out by fire; and still amidst the ruins of churches, public
+buildings and private dwellings, smoke and flames arose in all parts
+of the city exultant and unsubdued, looking at night-time like glutted
+vultures over their helpless prey. Warehouses, wharves, and even
+vessels at anchor, had shared the same fate, so that landing at all
+was a difficult matter at first. In the streets, here and there, were
+disconsolate groups of men, excavating from tons of fallen masonry,
+safes which had proved none too safe, and which, lying burnt,
+battered, and discarded at intervals, served to enhance the sense of
+general desolation.
+
+From the harbour the first appearance suggested the ruins of Pompeii,
+for the wooden houses of 12,000 people had gone up in smoke, leaving
+only rows of blackened and scorched pillars rising from the charred
+debris. On closer inspection, however, the illusion was dispelled, for
+the pillars proved to be tottering brick chimneys, with two or three
+half-destroyed fire-grates above one another, the whole being topped
+by most prosaic cracked chimney-pots. Queer things had happened in
+the general panic. Patients who had lain in bed for years “arose and
+walked.” Barrels of dry goods were rolled pell-mell into the harbour,
+whence they were subsequently fished out. Merchants gave general leave
+to bystanders to save what they liked from their shops. Church pews
+were packed with heterogeneous goods and chattels, which only served
+to add to the conflagration when the sanctuary itself fell a victim to
+the all-devouring flames. Title deeds, recent enactments of parliament,
+ledgers, valuable manuscripts, were destroyed in scores; while, as
+the fire occurred just before tea-time, thousands found themselves
+houseless, hungry, dusty and “smoke-dried” by morning. To meet these
+sudden needs every available building was thrown open for shelter,
+while weak tea and light refreshments were served out, in every variety
+of pot, kettle, and cauldron available, by cabinet ministers from the
+steps of the Government buildings. The respected premier was to have
+been seen at an early hour of the morning with a background of blazing
+houses, in a most precarious position astride an angular roof, putting
+out burning embers as they fell. Nor did the flames cry “Quarter” to
+the episcopal apron, even his lordship escaping coatless. It was said
+that a jeweller, who had at the last moment sent his assistant to put
+valuables in the safe, found on opening it afterward a dust brush and
+an old matchbox only. One man was noticed skurrying up the hill with a
+feather mattress on his back, all unconscious it was brightly burning;
+while one, like another Nero over another Rome, was seen playing a
+piano in the open street, that had been hastily deposited there by its
+flying owner. The musical tastes of the community were impressively
+brought out by the fact that some dozen “borrowed” pianos were rescued
+from houses in neighbouring villages, when authority was once more able
+to cope with disorder.
+
+Forest fires continued to rage in every direction for days and weeks
+after, till the greater part of the peninsula of Avalon was treeless,
+many country homesteads sharing the same fate as the city. In some
+planter cottages I visited, I found men who had been fighting for their
+lives, homes, and possessions for days with these forest fires. In some
+cases the women, children, and goods had been carried out and deposited
+for safety for two or three days on the edges of the great “ponds,” as
+the huge lakes all over the country are called.
+
+Most wise enactments on the part of the authorities prevented what
+might have led to serious riots. All public-houses and liquor shops
+were promptly closed, and several attempts at incendiarism were nipped
+in the bud. Yet, amidst all their own troubles, the Newfoundlanders
+found time to show us the greatest of kindnesses. So much so that it
+would be invidious here to particularize one more than another. While
+in St. Johns we visited every ship in harbour, giving away “readin’,”
+and finding out all we could about the fishermen and fisheries. The
+Hospital Mission ship, with her cargo of warm clothing, some of which
+was at once in demand, her medicines, and her stores of healthy
+literature, spoke practically of warm hearts in the old country,
+still dear to all her distant children, and served to prove to this,
+her oldest colony, that England is still a mother in more than name.
+Hundreds of all classes and denominations poured down to see the
+_Albert_ when once her mission was understood, for it took time to
+realize that the lovely ship, with such admirable equipment, was
+really free for the poor and sick of bleak Labrador. A pilot having
+been provided for us in the person of Captain Nicholas Fitzgerald, the
+_Albert_ sailed for Labrador.
+
+[Illustration: The _Albert_ in Bateaux Harbour.—Flags up for Service.]
+
+Dense fog prevailed for four days, so that the end even of our own
+bowsprit was scarcely visible, the _Albert_ standing accordingly well
+out to sea, “Brother Foghorn” having it all his own way. On the
+fourth day we caught a glimpse of Cape Bauld, the north-east corner
+of Newfoundland, and then the impenetrable veil dropped again. Our
+only occupation had been our deep sea thermometer, which registered
+generally from 28-30° Fahren. in two to three hundred fathoms. On
+Sunday we once more sighted land. The foe had gone, and was replaced
+by a bright clear day—not a cloud in the sky, not a ripple on the
+dark blue water. Innumerable rocky islands and lofty headlands were
+visible away on the port bow—some showing a bright yellow from the
+mosses and lichens on them. Around us we could count thirty magnificent
+icebergs—chips from the eternal Arctic ice. A school of whales were
+sporting under our lee, every now and again throwing jets of glistening
+water high into the air. The scene to our eager eyes was one indeed of
+surpassing interest and beauty.
+
+Our pilot’s experience was at once on trial, for only a very imperfect
+survey exists of the coast. And not one single landmark, lightship,
+buoy, or distinguishing mark exists to aid the mariner anywhere along
+this dreary coast, a lack not remedied by the luxuriance of fogs and
+icebergs. It stood the test well. He pronounced the spot “Roundhill
+Island.”
+
+After passing through a precipitous rocky entrance, half closed by a
+stranded mountain of ice, on which the long swell of the Atlantic was
+thundering, we dropped anchor off a long narrow creek, round which
+our glasses revealed rude fishing stages and mud huts. The name of the
+harbour was Domino.
+
+Five minutes was long enough to bring several small boats alongside,
+with eager inquiries as to who this strange vessel might be! Where
+was it bound? what was its errand? while a few more minutes saw us
+being swiftly rowed ashore to come and see G—— who had been “bad all
+summer.”
+
+Soon I was sitting in a tiny, dark mud hut, with neither glass in the
+hole that served for light and air, nor a chimney to carry up the
+smoke from the fire on the floor, through the large hole in the roof
+intended for its escape. A groaning man sat doubled up on a rude bench
+in a dark corner of the room, while his wife endeavoured to restrain
+the super-abundant energy of a crowd of children. “Been ill long?”
+I asked, after the usual greetings had been exchanged. “About three
+weeks. Wish I could get home. There’s no chance for a sick man up
+here.” Evidently he did not yet grasp the idea of our hospital ship.
+“Well, we’ll see what can be done,” and the case was inquired into, and
+found to my joy to be one for which relief could, by care, be obtained.
+After some further talk, in which one or two fishermen joined, who
+had entered during the examination, we had a few words of prayer for
+God’s blessing on the means used, and left for the ship, leaving behind
+us, for the _Albert’s_ first evening in Labrador, at least one poor
+heart grateful—and thoughtful. A hearty service aboard and many minor
+cases of sickness closed the day. Daylight again saw boats alongside
+the _Albert_, and we were called to visit a poor Eskimo dying from
+consumption. He had been brought from an island four days before, and
+was lying in a lonely hut, hoping some day that he would be well enough
+to get aboard the mail steamer for advice.
+
+The poor house was indeed ill-calculated for a dying
+man—ill-ventilated, ill-lighted, and dirty—with little clothing, and
+still less food, semi-starvation was rapidly hastening on the end. Oh,
+for a clean bed, a nurse, a hospital, to put such cases in, was the
+whole talk over tea that evening. All was done that could be. Food,
+medicine, and some warm clothing were taken him; but ere the _Albert_
+came south again, death had claimed the poor fellow for its victim, and
+closed the sad scene of human suffering; and the valley of shadows had
+been crossed without the knowledge of a Saviour, who takes away all its
+sting. At whose door will this fault be laid? Not more than once a year
+does the sound of the glad tidings of God’s grace reach Spotted Island,
+the home still of some fifty persons.
+
+To avoid repetition, I must now content myself by giving a general
+description of the people of this coast and their methods of earning a
+living.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Hudson Bay Company’s Post, Rigolette.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_DO PEOPLE LIVE IN LABRADOR?_
+
+
+Do people live in Labrador? There is a resident white population of
+some 5,000 at least, scattered along the south and east coasts. They
+call themselves “Livyeres.” North of these are Eskimos, and in the
+interior Indians, known locally as “Mountaineers,” but actually they
+are different branches of the old Algonquin race. The last returns were
+as follows:—
+
+  White population of St. Lawrence coast 4,411
+  White population of Atlantic coast     2,416
+  Eskimo on the coast                    1,700
+  Indians of the interior                4,000
+                                        ——————
+                              Total     12,527
+                                        ——————
+
+These Indians, who once held North America from the “Rockies” to the
+sea, have steadily decreased in numbers. As they live by hunting only,
+the extensive forest fires, and depletion of fur-bearing animals,
+have driven them further and further west. Whole encampments have
+been reported “found dead from starvation.” Only occasionally do they
+visit the coast, bringing furs with them to trade with the Hudson Bay
+Company. They never take to sea fishing.
+
+The Eskimo, of Mongolian origin, at one time were as far south as
+Newfoundland. In 1780 a tribe 500 strong still dwelt along the Straits
+of Belle Isle. Now almost all are north of Hamilton inlet; of these I
+shall speak later.
+
+Whence do the whites come? Some are said to be descendants of those
+who fled the old country in press-gang days. In 1780 we hear of a crew
+of convicts sent out there. Some are descendants of sailors wrecked
+on the coast, or of Newfoundland and other fishermen who have been
+left there. More come from those who have gone out in the service of
+the Hudson Bay Company, while some few have emigrated directly there.
+The largest settlement consists of about 100 persons, and with the
+people of neighbouring coves numbers about 350. It is here where the
+mission has built the first hospital ever known in Labrador. In May or
+June every year the coast is visited by from 20 to 25,000 fishermen,
+women and children. These arrive as soon as the ice is blown off the
+coast by westerly winds. Most are from Newfoundland, some from Canada,
+with occasional Americans buying fish. They come in every variety of
+vessel—small and large, good, bad and indifferent—mostly of the
+schooner type. They number about 1,000. Besides the crew, which varies
+from five to ten men, with one or two women, most Newfoundland vessels
+bring a number of people called “freighters.” These are landed at
+various harbours, where they have left mud huts and boats the previous
+year, and where they will fish all summer. The fish is “made” or cured
+in Labrador, and sent in large vessels to the Mediterranean, Brazilian,
+or English markets. Meanwhile, the schooner has gone further north in
+search of a “fare” of fish. If successful, the fish will be salted,
+and brought home “wet,” so that these vessels are called “green-fish
+catchers.” As they come south they call for their “freighters,” with
+their goods and chattels, who pay 25 cents per head per cwt. of fish
+caught in return for their passage. The overcrowding on some of these
+vessels returning is very great, and is made worse by the fact that
+every year more vessels go than return. Besides the cargo of fish,
+casks of oil, nets, boats, and general goods, perhaps thirty, forty,
+or fifty men and women will be crowded into these small vessels, at
+times with only room to lie down in the hold between the deck and the
+cargo. On one small schooner of nineteen tons we counted fifty people,
+thirty-four men and sixteen women. The women, many of whom have
+children with them, are often very bad sailors. As a rule, they are
+not allowed on deck except in port, and this voyage is a nightmare all
+summer to numbers. They are pillars of pluck, many of these women. They
+can handle an oar and sail a small boat with the best, and among them
+are “Grace Darlings” only wanting an opportunity. They work chiefly at
+cleaning fish and keeping the huts for the men, though some, I think
+very wrongly, form part of the crews of the green fish catchers. The
+Canadian schooners are larger—carry about eighteen men and no women.
+The people consider Labrador very healthy, which I attribute to their
+comparative immunity there from epidemic diseases. The damp mud huts,
+often filled with snow till the very day they go in, the entire absence
+of any sanitary provisions, combined always with either cold draughts
+or too little ventilation, have, without any doubt, an ill effect on
+the people, but more especially on the women, who occupy them.
+
+[Illustration: Fields of Fish Drying—Emily Harbour.]
+
+The fishermen are tall men, and broad to match, born to the sea,
+and are accustomed, from their training at the seal fishery on the
+ice, to be quick and active. No lighthouse, no buoy, no landmark aid
+navigation on the Labrador coast. The charts are old, bad, incorrect,
+incomplete and unreliable, while north of Hamilton inlet, _where
+nearly all the schooners go for green fish_, there is practically no
+chart at all, most of the surveying having been done by the keels and
+bilges of devoted fishing schooners. Streams of icebergs, floating
+all the summer to the southward before the polar current, render it
+always unwise to stay at sea at night. With sudden calms and baffling
+winds from high perpendicular cliffs, making a harbour without a tug
+is always hard enough; but here, in addition, the constant and dense
+fogs make it often impossible, without any kind of guide, even to
+find a harbour at all; for in places shoals and ledges run out twenty
+miles to seaward. Yet for all this shameful neglect on the part of the
+Newfoundland Government, the weak defence is constantly made, “Not
+many lives are lost.” That I know to be due solely to the consummate
+seamanship and daring perseverance of the fishermen. Among many good
+vessels, many are bad, and, worse still, are provided with but bad
+tackle and holding-gear. The latter is an absolute essential, with the
+liability that exists to sudden hurricanes, and I believe more vessels
+are lost in Labrador from this one cause than all others put together.
+Moreover many, as I have already pointed out, are greatly overcrowded.
+More than once we saw vessels drifting to destruction, and once, when
+holding on ourselves for all we were worth, we had the pleasure of
+saving a comrade by running him a coir hawser, and so holding him on
+the verge of the rocks after his own tackle had given out and the crew
+had received brief notice to quit through the boiling surf.
+
+It must be remembered that Newfoundland, our oldest colony, exists
+solely by its fishery; that one-third of its entire revenue is now
+derived from this very Labrador fishery, that is some one-and-a-half
+million dollars, and that in no other way could this harvest be reaped.
+Moreover almost every man in Labrador may be called a fisherman, and
+yet nothing is done for all their returns. Here is another method of
+interpreting the value of the industry. It is said seventeen tons of
+fish contain the nutritive value of 50 head of cattle, or 300 sheep.
+Now the average yield for fifty years from the French and English
+Fisheries is 2,300,000 cwt., that is 338,235 cattle, or 2,029,410 sheep.
+
+The summer Labrador settlements are on islands or outside headlands,
+and here both Newfoundlanders and “Livyeres” dwell, the latter retiring
+up the bays and inlets, to be nearer wood and game, when the former
+return to Newfoundland. There are about a dozen well recognised central
+stations in Labrador, where agents representing the various merchants’
+firms are stationed to collect the fish from the fishermen dealing with
+their firm, and to ship it thence to market. These men have far better
+houses than the rest, generally also a store from which the general
+wants of their men are supplied. As a rule, advances are made of all
+needful appliances and food to some better known fishermen.
+
+These men are known as “Planters,” and employ under them so many men
+and women on “share” or wages. Occasionally, also, the agent has some
+men of his own, working for settled wages, who may be made to fish for
+cod, to pack salmon, to load vessels, or do any work they are told.
+When seven men fish one trap or seine net, the total catch is divided
+into fourteen shares—seven for the planter and seven for the men.
+That is one share each; a few dollars on the hundred quintals being
+allowed the skipper of the “crew.” Or when a man fishes his own net
+with four men, I saw the value divided into twelve shares—four for
+the master, four for the trap, and one each for the men, so that each
+man gets every twelfth fish. When hand-lining begins, and two men have
+charge of each boat, every other fish belongs to the men, the owner
+taking two out of four. A girl’s wages are £6 to £7 currency for the
+season, and her keep. Each planter has his own hut, but his men often
+live together. The huts are of logs with the chinks filled with moss
+and covered with sods. Entrance is by a low doorway, and there is a
+small window placed low down to prevent escape of heat. Warmth and
+ventilation cannot co-exist in so small a space. A man a little over
+a fathom long once visited Sir Donald Smith, when an agent on that
+coast. To accommodate his legs at night a hole had to be cut in the
+wall, and a box lined with dogskin fixed up outside. I saw one day a
+fisherman moving house. The house was first wedged up on piles, then a
+rope was put round it, and, with the help of a few neighbours, it was
+dragged higher up the hill. Another house I saw had been dragged over
+the harbour on the ice “to be nearer the fishing ground.” An American
+stove, or more often an open fireplace (the smoke going out of a huge
+chimney like in an Irishman’s cabin), serves for warmth and cooking.
+The stove, anyhow, is a movable chattel, and accompanies its master to
+his winter hut in the fall. Clothes are so expensive and so scanty that
+every man is his own wardrobe, and he who puts his clothes in a drawer
+must himself go naked. Thus a block of furniture is obviated. Bunks are
+put up for the men or a partition boarded off, while the girls sleep in
+a “lean-to,” called a “bunk-house,” or have a part partitioned off, or
+hang an old curtain in front of their bunk in the smaller huts.
+
+Some Newfoundland planters and agents provide boarded huts for their
+“crowd,” but in all the arrangements are much the same. The Livyeres’
+families have all their separate huts. Each “crew” has a fish stage,
+alongside which the fish are brought in the boats. These stages
+are built out on piles driven into the mud. Long poles, known as
+“rounders,” are laid side by side across the tops of these, and form a
+kind of flooring. The whole is then roofed in with poles and sods, in
+order that fish-curing may proceed at night by costers’ lamps, or in
+bad weather. Up the middle of the stage runs a table for splitting the
+fish on. The green fish are hove up on to the stage with pitchforks,
+seized by a woman who cuts off the head—“the header,” and passed
+on to one who opens the throat—“the throater.” She passes it to a
+man—“the splitter.” He, with great dexterity, cuts out the backbone
+and flings the flesh into a tub of water for the “washer.” I have timed
+a man split thirteen fish in one minute. It takes the tyro nearer
+thirteen minutes to split one well. The offal is thrown through a hole
+in the floor into the sea below, where every variety of scavenger fish
+congregates. In Norway, and by Messrs. Munn of Newfoundland, the skins
+and bones are made into a splendid glue, while the rest of the offal
+is preserved for fish manure. The washed fish is next laid in pile
+and salted. The “salter” is also a skilled mechanic. It is easy to
+undersalt and easy to “saltburn,” or oversalt, whereby much valuable
+salt is wasted. This salt comes all the way from Cadiz by the same
+vessels that take the fish away. Next the fish is spread in the sun.
+A fine day is waited for, and all hands turn to. Many a slip exists
+between the cup and the lip, however. If the fish has lain too long,
+it will be sodden, and go grey or dun. If the sun is too hot, it will
+be sun-burnt. If rain comes, and it is wet and dry again, too often it
+will be injured. It must be turned and returned. At last it is gathered
+up into circular “piles,” back up, and tail to the centre. These piles
+are covered over with birch rinds, and a few stones placed on the top
+to keep the whole together till it is time to ship them away. They
+are weighed into the ship, two quintals at a time, a “culler” looking
+over them as they pass in and classifying them; and according to this
+classification they are paid for. The receipt handed to the fishermen
+runs thus:—
+
+              Received from..............
+
+  Large }
+  Medium}    Merchantable fish
+  Small }
+  Madeira    Merchantable fish
+  West India Merchantable fish
+  Talqual    Merchantable fish
+  Inferior   Merchantable fish
+  Damp       Merchantable fish
+  Dun        Merchantable fish
+  Slimy      Merchantable fish
+  Labrador   Merchantable fish
+  And also ...... casks of ...... gallons of oil.
+
+There is always a great race to get first to market, for the first
+cargo always fetches a higher price. One fish planter ships his own
+fish to England, and thus is able to get at times a better price than
+that offered in St. Johns. On the other hand, he runs the risks of the
+freight, insurance, etc.
+
+No railway, public building, roads, drains, or such like things
+exist in Labrador, and every man is a fisherman first, a handy man
+after—boat or house-builder, blacksmith, cooper, curer, as the case
+may be. Only three harbours do I know where liquor is sold: in one of
+these two poor fellows were drowned through its influence last year.
+No jail or police exist on the coast. A small revenue schooner, with a
+justice of the peace on board, is responsible for maintaining the law
+and preventing smuggling. The people are, as a rule, law-abiding; but
+crimes, especially among the half-breeds and Eskimo, go unpunished.
+In one settlement a lay reader and school teacher are established; in
+another an aspirant to the Methodist ministry, while settlements up two
+long inlets enjoy similar privileges. These men are all doing excellent
+work, as is a Presbyterian student from Dalhousie University in the
+Straits of Belle Isle.
+
+Most school work can be done in winter, for in summer only those too
+young to work can be spared; and if they are old enough to journey
+alone to and from the school, they are old enough to do something at
+the fishery. Only a small percentage of Livyeres can read or write.
+Every summer it is usual for a Roman Catholic priest, a Methodist
+minister, and an Anglican clergyman to visit as many stations as they
+can on the first 400 miles of coast. They are passed along in boats
+from place to place by the too willing people, who, irrespective of
+creed, extend their kindly hospitality to all alike. In places wood
+buildings have been put up voluntarily by the men in their spare time,
+for Sunday services, conducted usually by one of themselves. Our own
+gatherings, at times too large for the _Albert’s_ hold or these little
+buildings, were held in fish stores ashore, cleared for the purpose, or
+in the open air, one of the countless boulders serving for a natural
+rostrum. I have seen the same place serve in the morning for Church of
+England, in the afternoon for Wesleyan, in the evening for Salvation
+Army, and pretty much the same congregation attending each. I have
+known a Methodist meeting house on Sunday reconsecrated for Mass on
+Monday. This absence of conventionality, this socialism on a basis of
+kindly generosity, is most congenial to one from the old world.
+
+Fresh meat and vegetables are alike hard to procure. No cow or horse
+exists. The domestic animal world is represented only by the inevitable
+dog; the vegetable by the stringy cabbage or struggling turnip, whose
+leaves alone attain to economic value. To prevent scurvy in winter,
+when fresh fish is not attainable, salt meat must be avoided, even
+if they can afford to buy it. The following recipe is invented with
+that end: “Dry the cod in the sun till it is so hard none can go
+bad. In winter powder this, rub it up with fresh seal oil, and add
+cranberries if you have any.” This dainty is known as “Pipsey.” These
+people neither need nor expect luxuries; sugar and milk are very rarely
+used—tinned milk being too expensive, molasses being cheaper than
+sugar, and also margarine than butter. White rabbits, white grouse and
+sea-birds help to eke out the winter’s diet.
+
+But to be accurate, in two harbours I saw a pig, brought by the
+Newfoundlanders. When they arrived the dogs were banished to a desert
+island near. In one harbor we listened to much wailing. Two pigs
+had been isolated on an island near, the fishermen enjoying daily
+the bliss of anticipation. But alas! here the dogs proved equal to
+the occasion. An on-shore wind had brought them the joyful news, and
+that very morning the pigs disappeared, only a few blood-stained
+bristles remaining to tell the story of the crime. In one harbour a
+planter had brought a sheep, but its isolation had so developed its
+affection for its owner that it followed him everywhere, and he could
+not make up his mind to kill it. Goats fare a little better: they have
+horns. Yet in one place three nights in succession a goat had been
+missed. A team of runaway dogs was roaming near, but only approached
+the houses under cover of night. All these animals are, however, the
+perquisites of affluence, and belong almost entirely to the planters
+from Newfoundland. Some few bring fowls, which eke out a perilous
+existence on suffrance of the dogs. At the Hudson Bay Company’s station
+of Rigolette, Mr. Wilson, the chief factor, told me that two of his
+dogs got into his well-enclosed yard, and in four minutes killed eight
+hens and tore four goats to pieces. Among all these people no resident
+doctor exists, nor is skilled aid of any kind to be obtained in case
+of need; for the few minutes in the summer that the mail steamer
+stays in any harbour, and the irregular times of her calls, gives the
+doctor on board no opportunity to render effective aid. When sickness
+falls on the people no one knows what it is, or how to treat it. Not
+knowing they are ill, men work on till a trifling ailment becomes a
+matter of life and death. A slight accident with no “first aid” at
+hand, permanently cripples a limb or destroys a valuable function,
+such as sight. Bleeding unchecked from a simple wound deprives a
+dependent family of the father and breadwinner. Many are the piteous
+stories I have learnt of such cases since first, in 1892, the Gospel
+Hospital-ship _Albert_ was sent out by warm hearts in Old England to
+their brothers and sisters in this “region beyond.”
+
+After all this description of Labrador, do you ask, as I do, why do
+people stay here, when the fair farm lands of Canada are offered free
+to all? There is a story that a solitary old woman in the wilds of
+North America was one day visited by a gentleman from that “hub of
+the universe,” Boston city. She asked him, “Where do you live?” “Oh,
+hundreds of miles away—in Boston.” “How do you manage to live so far
+away?” was the reply. To begin with, every one has a lingering belief
+in his “ain countree.” The wild life to which these people are born has
+a certain charm to others besides themselves. Sailors they are born
+and bred. What else can they do? Some have been taken by the Canadian
+Government to the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence—the Arcady
+of Longfellow—and yet have found eventually their way back. The fact
+remains—here is an increasing English-speaking colony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+_JUST HOW THE FISH ARE CAUGHT_
+
+
+[Illustration: Boat returning from the Trap full of Fish.]
+
+Cod (Gadus) = goad or rod fish—called in Norway stick or stock fish,
+or in Spanish “baccalhao,” in Italian “mazza,” a club or rod—all of
+which synonyms imply that a rod or stick is used in preserving the
+fish. In Norway two are tied tail to tail, and then slung over a stick,
+being then exposed to sun and air so many days—prescribed by law. The
+Eskimo largely hang them from a rod by the gills after splitting and
+salting them, but Newfoundlanders spread them out on poles, called
+“flakes,” or on the natural rocks, called “bournes.” But “you must
+first catch your hare, then cook him,” and seasons suitable being
+very brief in these Arctic climates, the most rapid methods must be
+adopted; and in cod-catching Newfoundland has eclipsed all her rivals.
+
+In spring, nets only are used, for the fish are in shoals, feeding on
+the myriads of caplin, a fish the size of a sardine, which are inshore
+then to spawn. The most successful net is the cod-trap. Practically it
+is a submerged parlour of net without a roof, but with a large door,
+into which the cod are invited to walk by a long net leading to the
+nearest headland of rock, and ending at the centre of the door. It is
+all kept in position by heavy anchors. The distance from the rock is
+from a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards. Cod are gregarious fish,
+and, like sheep, follow a leader. When, therefore, one comes up against
+the net as he swims near the rocks, he turns out into deeper water to
+circumvent it, and so leads his confiding following directly into the
+net. Here, being a platonic fish, he remains, indolently browsing on
+the infusoria and ocean slime which collect about the twiny walls of
+his prison. Suddenly a boat appears overhead, and a long telescope,
+with a plain glass bottom—the fish glass—is pushed down into the
+room, through which the trap-master is peering to see how many finny
+prisoners there are. Now the door is pulled up, and now the floor is
+rising—rising—rising, being passed along under the boat, until all
+the frightened captives are huddled together in one seething mass near
+the surface. Now a dipper is put in, and the jumping, struggling fish
+are heaved into the boat. Soon the boat is full to the gunwale, and
+still there are more prisoners. Large bags of net are produced and
+filled with the rest of the fish. These, after being buoyed, are thrown
+overboard to wait till they are “wanted.”
+
+I have seen fifty to sixty hundredweight of fish taken in the same
+trap time after time. Sometimes more are caught than the curers can
+keep pace with. Then the fortunate trap-master allows his neighbours
+to “haul the trap,” receiving in return a small proportion of cured
+fish. Now certain positions are thought better than others for setting
+these traps, with the result that there is every spring a race from
+Newfoundland to get them, like our members of parliament race for
+seats. The law does not allow traps to be set till a certain day, and
+the leading net must be put out to secure the berth—a top hat on a
+bench is not sufficient—and unless within four days the whole trap
+is set, the claim becomes void. Thus, while the ice was still on the
+shores of Labrador, a steamer was sent ahead with numbers of men, each
+armed with “a trap leader,” to get ahead of the sailing schooners which
+were working their perilous way along inside the floe ice. In one case,
+after the best berths had thus been taken, the nets to complete the
+traps did not turn up till after the prescribed four days. Meanwhile
+another crew had pulled up their nets and pounced on the coveted
+prizes. Again, some men were landed with “leaders” on one station late
+at night. “No sail in sight. We’ll secure our berths to-morrow
+morning.” During the night, however, a southerly wind brought in two
+schooners, and during the hours of darkness these secured the prize
+while the others slept.
+
+[Illustration: Snug Harbour.]
+
+The “cod-seine” ranks second in importance among nets in Labrador. It
+is of prodigious size, up to 60 feet deep, requiring seven men to work
+it, and is used either to bar an inlet, or to shoot round a shoal of
+cod in deep water. The seine master stands, fish-glass in hand, high on
+the bow of the seine skiff, as his stalwart crew, with eight huge pine
+oars, drive the boat along, perhaps hour after hour. The vast net is
+piled up on the stern, while one man stands on the thwarts, steering
+with his oar like an Italian gondolier. Suddenly “Easy all!” is cried;
+“Hold her up!” and the seine master peers down into the water with
+his glass. A school of fish is on the bottom. Swiftly the net anchor
+is dropped, and the net is paid out astern as the willing backs bend
+to the oars and force the skiff round and home to the starting place,
+marked by a gaily-painted buoy. Thus the whole school are enclosed. Now
+the weighted foot rope is “gathered” together, the net has become one
+vast bag, and the prisoners are dealt with as before, _i.e._ dipped out
+and bagged off.
+
+The gill net is rarely used in Labrador now. In Norway it is still a
+favourite method. Twenty to twenty-four nets, eighty feet long and
+about fifty feet deep, are “shot” in water of from twenty to sixty
+fathoms, or even in ninety fathoms, as many as three to four thousand
+cod being meshed at one time. Under certain circumstances nets are no
+use, _e.g._, on the great banks, or late in the season in Labrador.
+Lines must then be used, and it is advisable to use bait on the hook.
+To us accustomed to row out and catch a few codling with a mussel, the
+subject of “baits” has apparently little interest. But out here it has
+become a subject of international importance. The fact is, mussels
+are too soft, coming off the hook too readily, and also cod are a
+fastidious fish, and will only condescend to swallow that “poisson”
+which is in season. True, it is not essential to bait the hooks at
+all. Instead you may take two large hooks, fix them back to back with
+a piece of lead, which will act at once as bait and sinker. Lower this
+to the bottom, and then keep jerking it up and down. Often you will
+strike fish as fast as you can work, using one line in each hand. This
+method, called “jigging,” eventually injures the fishery, probably
+because numbers of fish escape after being wounded, and others follow
+them, possibly to devour them, more than five being injured for one
+caught. The fishermen say the injured warn their friends, but a fish’s
+appreciation of pain is somewhat doubtful.
+
+Sailors have told me of sharks which, after being caught and having
+had their livers cut out, will continue to pursue and swallow the same
+piece of pork as long as sufficient vitality remains in them to keep
+pace with the vessel; nay, even that, after being cut in half, the “bow
+end” will still wriggle after the bait, when the ship is becalmed in
+the doldrums. But Jack is prejudiced against sharks.
+
+Bait is necessary, however, in deep water, a fact that led the
+Newfoundland Government to pass the famous “Bait Act,” rendering it
+illegal to supply the French with bait in the hope of destroying their
+banking industry. Alas! laws are easier to make than enforce, and the
+worst sufferers were those who formerly made out of this supply an
+honest livelihood.
+
+Octopus and Squid is _facile princeps_ among baits for cod. Yet the
+cod must be circumspect in indulging this weakness, and confine his
+attention to those of tender years, for these cephalopods attain to
+enormous size at times in these waters. Thus the Rev. Dr. Harvey
+(F.R.S., Canada), of St. Johns, narrates how, while recently two
+Newfoundlanders were out fishing in their little rowing boat, two
+enormous arms rose out of the water, seized the boat, and endeavoured
+to drag it below the surface. Fortunately a chopper lay at hand in the
+boat, and the great beast, after losing two of his arms, sank amidst
+volumes of black ink. The parts of arms cut off were nineteen feet
+long, and are now preserved in St. Johns Museum. Shortly after another
+was secured by Dr. Harvey, which had been found floating, dead. Its
+grasp embraced forty feet. Again, in 1772 Cartwright caught one seven
+feet long without head or tentacles. The beaks of these fish resemble
+a parrot’s, and in large specimens are far more solid than human teeth.
+
+Catching octopus is exciting work. A number of row-boats are anchored
+close together outside some point of land, and the fishermen are lazily
+jigging up and down a little bright red leaden weight, bristling with
+wire spikes. Suddenly a stir—all are working with might and main. A
+company of squids are passing and flying on the jiggers like vampires;
+the red weights are being grabbed voraciously. Beware as you get him
+on board. Suddenly he relaxes his grasp, and shoots out a jet of ink,
+which smarts considerably in one’s eyes, and leaves weird patterns on
+white linen. They swim backwards and at great pace after their prey.
+Salted down, these squid fetch fifteen to fifty cents per hundred.
+“Bankers” pay ten to twenty cents per hundred.
+
+Caplin I have mentioned. They are taken in fine meshed seine nets or in
+cast nets thrown from the shoulder like the “retiarius” of old threw
+his.
+
+Herrings form a very excellent bait. They are caught in gill nets
+anchored out in likely spots, and these are emptied every day. Our
+English drift nets are rendered impossible by the icebergs and sudden
+storms, with no harbour lights in case of emergency at night, and
+herring see the net in daytime. Herrings have been kept frozen, and
+then found to serve as excellent bait. A new way to freeze these is to
+half fill a barrel with broken ice, salt and herrings, and then roll
+it well over and over. Thus a constant supply of bait at known places
+might be maintained in fixed ice houses; a much needed arrangement, for
+much time and money is lost by the uncertain supply of bait. Launce
+or sand eels have often to be used, but can only be taken on sandy
+bottoms, perhaps miles from a fishing station. Then several crews
+club together, and lend men in turns to row the bait skiff as many as
+twenty-four miles, sharing up the bait when it arrives. Occasionally
+they pay shares for a small launch to keep up a regular supply. White
+fish, a small fish taken in surface seines, are occasionally used, and
+also sometimes whelks.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cartwright Staff.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+_THE TRUCK SYSTEM_
+
+
+Cod alone is fish in Labrador diction. Cod is the coin of the realm.
+Money is scarcely known, and no other medium of exchange is used by the
+people, whose _raison d’être_ almost is cod. All live on goods advanced
+on credit, to be paid for by their catch of cod. This truck system, is
+the next of kin to the old feudal system, and has long been extinct in
+most civilized countries. It seems the early treatment of Newfoundland
+by England is partly responsible for the rise of this baneful system,
+which it is now difficult to remove. The struggling fisherman knows it
+is a state of bondage, but cannot get out of it; the merchant knows its
+disadvantages outweigh its profits; while the colony must recognise
+that it is alone the cause of so many of its younger and more energetic
+men leaving the country as soon as they can see their way to do so—for
+no race loves its country with more patriotic affection than do
+Newfoundlanders.
+
+Up to the end of the eighteenth century no one was allowed to remain
+in Newfoundland after the fishing season, each captain of a fishing
+vessel being held responsible, under heavy penalty, to bring back all
+his crew to England; while if any one did desert and remain behind to
+be near the fishing grounds, and to reap the harvest of the sea for his
+own benefit, his stage, and even house and goods, might be appropriated
+by the first fishing captain out next year. This made it only possible
+for fishermen to go out when some merchant capitalist would finance the
+voyage, who, in return, repaid himself out of the fish caught.
+
+Now many vessels were sent out, and though the catch of fish by any
+individual vessel was uncertain—for fish set into one place one
+year and another the next—the whole catch would generally repay the
+merchant amply. But as in some cases all vessels of one merchant might
+do badly, a large price was charged on goods advanced as a further
+security for the merchant, that in any case he might be quite sure
+to recoup himself for his outlay. And lastly, though there might be
+no immediate return in fish or cash, yet the fishermen at once began
+to accumulate a large nominal debt; and though possibly, and even
+probably, they would never be able to liquidate this, yet the fact of
+their being indebted to any particular merchant insured their fishing
+for him year after year. Thus, perhaps, the best issue for the merchant
+at settling time seemed in every case to be a debt by each man, but
+not large enough to make the fisherman despair and so fish badly. Thus
+the successful fisherman had to pay for his unsuccessful brother’s
+deficits. The fishermen soon found this out, and were not only soured
+against their suppliers, but lost the incentive to make any effort
+to discharge their whole debts. The merchant now found it difficult
+to make ends meet through bad debts, and was led to buy in the fish
+himself, insisting on the fishermen not paying in cash, but fish.
+Each year the commercial body fixed its own price for fish, punished
+those of their men who sold the fish for cash if they could do so, and
+themselves resold the fish in foreign markets, gaining a second profit
+when possible. Thus large nominal debts arose, which in hundreds of
+cases the men could never hope to liquidate. The spirit of pauperism
+was directly fostered, the men becoming absolutely dependent on the
+charity of their merchants, and in many cases from year to year never
+knowing how much they really owed.
+
+This system persists to-day, as an evil heirloom, dragging down both
+merchant and fisherman. To-morrow’s labour is ever mortgaged ahead for
+food to-day. At last a time comes when no longer any hope of return
+from certain men can be expected. The advances are suddenly cut off,
+and these men, deprived of their usual source of supply, fall back on
+government relief, till to-day over one-third and nearly half of the
+whole revenue of the country is spent in pauper relief. The recipients
+are frequently able-bodied men, and yet they have no shame in accepting
+it, looking on the government as an independent source of wealth,
+and calling their annual six to twenty-four dollars “a government
+appointment.”
+
+Thus the system has played into the hands of idleness and dishonesty
+also; for though all a man’s catch is nominally his merchant’s, he
+is tempted to keep some part back and sell it elsewhere, that he may
+have some ready money to spend when he returns. Thus one man who has
+already more fish than would pay his own debt, will accept fish from
+another heavily in debt, and turn it in to his merchant as his own,
+handing over afterwards the money or goods he obtained in return to
+his friend, and perhaps deducting a shilling a quintal for the risk
+involved. A far more common way is to take and sell your fish right
+away to another firm. All are generally glad to get fish anyhow; for
+not only is it a loss to send away a ship without a full freight, but
+also there is a great race to get vessels away first each year, as
+the first in the market will realize a higher price for their cargo
+throughout. To prevent this the various firms agreed at one time not
+to buy fish from another merchant’s planters. But this fell through,
+and now only a careful watch is kept on how much fish each man has as
+the season progresses, and the amount compared with what he delivers
+to his merchant. Any man caught alienating much fish would not receive
+any advance in future, though most firms are anxious to get all the men
+they can.
+
+The advances are made in May or early June. When the fish has been put
+on board the vessels for market in October, notes of credit are sent to
+the merchants thus:—
+
+  Received from......., .... qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Labrador fish.
+
+  To Messrs. ........., qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Merchantable fish.
+
+    Per Agent.......
+
+Then, as soon as the total catch can be roughly estimated, the Chamber
+of Commerce meet in St. Johns and decide what price they will give for
+fish. The credit notes are at once cashable at that price, cargoes
+being all insured. Each firm then credits its planters and men with
+their catch at that price, and a balance is struck between the total
+and the amount of each one’s advance in May. If a surplus remains, it
+goes to provide the fisherman with his winter’s diet. Now a good catch
+for a fisherman is 100 quintals of dry fish, or 300 quintals of green.
+On an average 100 fish go to the quintal, that is, each man must
+catch 30,000 fish. Each quintal is worth in St. Johns from 2-1/2 to 3
+dollars, so that 275 dollars is a good season, less 30 dollars for salt
+245 dollars, or about £50. It must be remembered many will only average
+20 quintals some years, or 50 dollars, not £50. The average catch per
+head for “bank” fishermen last year was 47-1/2 quintals. How often a
+man will be dependent, therefore, on charity for a supply of food for
+himself and his family during the winter becomes apparent.
+
+Often the winter’s diet that can be laid in is all too small for
+the needs of the family; and before the breaking up of the ice once
+more allows cod-fishing to commence, and the planters to return
+from Newfoundland, the poor Livyeres are reduced to living on “the
+landwash.” “A short feast and a long famine” is a coast epigram.
+
+Clothing is perhaps most difficult to find money for, and is apt to
+become so scanty that the settler, for lack of proper protection from
+the weather, cannot prosecute his fishing or hunting, especially where
+the temperature falls to 50°, or even more, below zero. I met one
+poor fellow who years before had missed his way home at night and had
+had to sleep out in the open. He had lost both feet from frost-bite.
+One can realize the need for woollen clothing. When near Winnipeg, in
+North Manitoba, I saw a young Englishman, who had been caught out in
+a blizzard, and had lost both hands and both feet at the wrists and
+ankles from frost-bite. But a still more vicious circle is established
+when, to procure food for this winter, a settler has to part with his
+means of “killing a voyage” next summer. The following is a case in
+point as related to me on the spot:—
+
+Some three years ago, at Big Bight, a Mr. Olliver, with his wife and
+five children, had fallen into great poverty. At last in spring, when
+all his food was exhausted, he set out, taking his last possessions,
+an old Jack plane and a trout net, with him. Having no dogs, he had
+to travel afoot over the ice and snow. At last he came to the house
+of the best-off settler about, Mr. Tosten Anderson, a Norwegian, and
+a splendid fellow. When asked for food, Mr. Anderson, showing all the
+flour he had, said, “To part with any more than I have done, means we
+must all starve together.” This was thirty to forty miles from his own
+home. He then went on twelve miles to a Mr. James Thomas, whose reply
+was just the same. Two days later he reached Richard Blomfield’s house
+on his way back. Here he met the same reply again. No more was heard
+till three days later, when Blomfield was summoned to the Ollivers’
+house. On the middle of the floor, his coat off and his gun by his
+side, lay Mr. Olliver, shot through the head. In a heap in one corner
+lay the three youngest children, scarcely dead from blows from an
+axe lying near them. Apparently determined to spare those who might
+provide for themselves, he had sent out first his wife and eldest
+daughter to search for food, and his eldest boy to search for birds.
+Mr. Blomfield told me he supposed that the cries of the hungry children
+proved too much for the poor father. Truly Virginius of old acted in
+much the same way.
+
+This, of course, is an extreme case, and in order to arrive at
+a fair conclusion, we took, as far as possible, a census of the
+Livyeres—noting the numbers and ages of children—the proportion that
+could read and write, and the number each had of gallons of molasses,
+barrels of flour or pork, pounds of tea, and tobacco, which, alas,
+nearly all use, however poor and unable to afford luxuries. That
+a very large proportion had a quite insufficient quantity of food
+became beyond question. It must be remembered it is not a question of
+how much they can buy, but how much a supplier is willing to give to
+people already heavily indebted to him, only a few being independent
+enough to pay down for what they take. Government aid, sea birds,
+seals, trout, willow grouse, and rabbits, _i.e._ arctic hares, are the
+supplemental sources available. The Newfoundlanders are too often only
+little better off than Labradormen, and I have many piteous accounts
+of parents themselves suffering chronic starvation in order to supply
+their little ones with the necessities of life. Soon, it is sincerely
+to be hoped, the interior of Newfoundland will be opened up. All look
+to the new railway to turn the attention of many to the cultivation of
+the land, which will at least help to render existence more easy. It
+is reasonable to hope also that the new sealing laws, the new fishery
+restrictions, and Mr. Adolph Neilsen’s magnificent work at the fish
+hatchery and lobster incubation, are the presages of happier times. But
+the people can never be free, industrious, and contented, until the
+truck system is dead and buried.[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: December, 1894. And now the long impending crash has
+come—both the banks of Newfoundland have failed, and ten out of twelve
+merchants’ firms have had to suspend payment, while the masses of the
+population are face to face with absolute starvation. The Truck System
+has entailed ruin on all concerned in it, and has brought the country
+to the verge of bankruptcy. There are not few, however, who see in
+these terrible events the promise of better things. A better system
+of trade must arise, a better relation between labour and capital, a
+better era for this oldest of England’s colonies. “Whom the Lord loveth
+He chasteneth.” God grant it may be so in this case.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A visit from Eskimo.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+_RESULTS OF THE FIRST VISIT_
+
+
+November, 1892, saw the _Albert_ once more in St. Johns Harbour,
+after having spent seventy-eight days on the coast. She had visited
+many harbours, treated 900 patients, distributed much clothing and
+literature, and collected much valuable information; while Mr. Adolph
+Neilsen, superintendent of Newfoundland fisheries, who had joined the
+_Albert_ during the greater part of her cruise, had been carrying on
+scientific observations calculated to directly benefit the fishing
+industry. Daily services had been held, at which thousands in all
+had been present, and not a few had confessed openly aboard their
+intention, by God’s help, to live new lives.
+
+On arriving in a new harbour, our large blue flag, now known along
+the whole coast as the herald of good things, had always proved
+a sufficient call to prayers. We found no need for adventitious
+attractions; where opportunities are so few, we found men and women
+only too glad to come and join in simple praise to God for mercies
+past, and prayer for the unknown future before them. Here the
+uncertainty of things seen, renders things unseen more real, while
+the impotence of man being so evident, makes the power of his Maker
+more intensely felt, and the anxiety to be ever ready to meet Him more
+deeply earnest. Even the sceptic has acknowledged it means something,
+this “coming to Christ” of the fisherman. His faith, unburdened by
+“higher criticisms,” or convenient interpretations, sees in his
+Master’s words a call to follow Him, on earth as well as in heaven.
+Often I have watched men tremble and hesitate, time after time, when
+God’s Spirit seems striving with them, before the final step is taken.
+For they count well the cost beforehand, and realize fully the weakness
+of their own natures. But once “over the line” means _following_ Christ
+to them—means coming out, being separate, marked men. The world sets
+for them no higher standard than they set for themselves, and their
+self-sacrificing fidelity to their ideal has stirred the heart of more
+than one Christian worker. There is little half-and-half following,
+little “coasting” for fear of “launching out,” such as saps to-day the
+joy and rejoicing of thousands of professed Christians. A fisherman
+knows if he has “tacked ship,” and is on the Lord’s side, or on the
+other side. Often they say, “I should like to be”; almost never, “I
+hope I am.”
+
+For visiting places inaccessible to the ship, from the fact that they
+lay among dangerous rocks, or up narrow creeks, or because they only
+offered shelter to small boats, we had taken with us a twenty-five
+foot whale-boat, the _Alfred_, which we rigged with two lug-sails
+and a jib. In this we made many journeys. Once we capsized her; once
+lost our way in the fog, and had a nasty half-hour, with wind rising,
+and fearing we were making out to sea as we ran before it, till the
+thunder of the surf warned us of the land, and the bottom of towering
+cliffs, white with Atlantic breakers, broke suddenly into view. We
+had to abandon the boat that night, and walk home over the hills; but
+we managed to fetch her home, close-reefed under shelter of the back
+of the islands, next day. It so happened that where we landed two
+or three couples wanted marrying. No chance had offered for several
+years, so one couple determined at once to return to the ship with us
+for that ceremony, as we had at the time a visiting minister on board.
+It was late at night before we got there, but we decided (1) any hour
+was better than none, and (2) that in a lonely harbour, on a solitary
+ship (and as they already had three children), “pronouncing the banns
+might be dispensed with.” So we adjourned to the cabin, and proceeded
+to business at once. The skipper was best man and I was witness,
+while the steward and crew, who had previously decorated the cabin
+with bunting, together with one or two Livyeres from the creek, were
+congregation. After all was over, hard biscuits and tea were served,
+in lieu of a wedding breakfast, while the occasion was honoured from
+a few old fowling-pieces and by a couple of dynamite distress rockets
+on the _Albert’s_ deck. Altogether, we visited in the _Alfred_ and the
+_Albert_ some thirty-five harbours, exertions which so told on the
+_Alfred’s_ constitution that now she is taking her last rest at Great
+Yarmouth.
+
+Our dingey also upset in Domino Run, when endeavouring to get ashore;
+an accident which proved nearly fatal to the ship’s carpenter, for he
+happened to come up under the sail, and was unable to swim. Happily it
+only ended in an undignified rescue. A more serious accident happened
+to the _Albert’s_ winch, for in Winsor Harbour, while letting go
+the anchor, a catch got wrong and stripped off all the teeth of the
+cog-wheels. After this we were unable to get our anchor in, except with
+the help of a great many men, for it was impossible to replace the
+cog-wheel on the Labrador. It was quite a sight on leaving harbours to
+see often fifty men, who had come off voluntarily, “walking in” the
+anchor by means of a system of pulleys, each as he came to the stern of
+the ship trotting back to catch hold of the rope again near the bow,
+a continuous chain of men being thus maintained, and all singing,
+as they pulled, one of the old shanty songs to assist them to pull
+together. The names of the harbours we entered were, if old Eskimo
+names, long and unpronounceable, such as Nukasasuktok; if French, often
+almost unrecognisable, thus Cape d’Espoir has become Cape Despair; if
+English, often descriptive of some incident, such as Run-by-Guess,
+Seldom-Come-By, Ice Tickle, Cutthroat Island, Split-Knife Harbour,
+Bakeapple Bight, Tumbledown Dick Island, and so on.
+
+[Illustration: Moravian Station, Hopedale.]
+
+When visiting up the bays our chief enemies were always the mosquitos.
+These are a very real scourge, for, like the black fly and sand fly,
+which also exist in myriads, they bite very severely, and we found them
+at times so thick that it was difficult to breathe without inhaling
+them. Even the “Livyeres” seldom, if ever, get accustomed to them,
+while it is at times impossible to send Newfoundland crews up inlets
+for firewood.
+
+Our medical cases had included many and various ailments, especially of
+the eye, the lungs, and the skin. Many teeth, of course, had called for
+attention; and the forceps had on more occasions than one been the way
+to a man’s heart. If you do not believe this, try a week’s toothache at
+sea without remedies.
+
+Among many interesting cases was that of one poor fellow, who fourteen
+days previously had accidentally shot off both his arms below the
+elbows. Since that time he had lain on his back, with nothing but
+an oily rag over the wounds. As we went into his hut he held up the
+raw stumps piteously, from which, in each case, some inches of bare
+bone protruded. What could be done was done to relieve his agony, but
+the poor fellow died of exhaustion after an operation on the stumps.
+The night we were leaving that harbour it was dark and blowing as I
+clambered out over the rocks, to signal for the ship’s boat about
+10 p.m. There I found waiting for me the poor man’s wife, who, in a
+flood of tears, gratefully wrung my hands, till I too felt a choking
+sensation about the throat. There was something so real in her sorrow,
+now left still more lonely on that lonely coast.
+
+One day a silver-haired old fisherman came aboard for advice. “All
+my three sons died this summer from diphtheria, sir,” he told me. “I
+buried them all the same week. My eldest was nineteen, and he lasted
+out the fever; but he couldn’t swallow, and I did not know how to
+feed him.” “What did you do?” “Well, I tied a split herring round his
+throat—some say that is good—but he starved to death before my eyes.
+It is hard for us now to get along, with no one to help me tend the
+nets. You see I’m not so young now as I was.”
+
+One poor woman, with a tumour of the leg, one day sent for “the mission
+doctor.” She couldn’t walk for it, she said, and life had become a
+burden. We told her, “An operation will make you quite well, and we can
+put you to sleep while it is done.” She would not take chloroform,
+however, and so we thought all was over. Next morning another message
+summoned me to the cottage, where I found five strong men waiting.
+“These men have promised to hold me, doctor, while you take that away.
+But I may bawl, mayn’t I?” In quarter of an hour all was completed, and
+my plucky patient was laughing loudest at the queer scene; for bawl
+she had, indeed, “to keep me from thinking of it,” she said. But the
+men held on well, and in ten days she was all healed, and was up and
+walking.
+
+Among our most interesting visits had been that to Hopedale, the most
+southern station of the Moravian missionaries; but I must leave to a
+later chapter a description of the Eskimo, of whom we saw a good deal.
+There were three Moravians and their wives here, the oldest having
+lived in Labrador twenty-seven years. Once a year they communicate with
+England by the good ship _Harmony_, which, with its predecessors, has
+been visiting the coast for one hundred and twenty years. These men are
+true followers of the Saviour in the self-sacrificing spirit, which
+draws them to live their lives out on so barren and deserted a coast.
+At seven years old their children leave them for ever, to be educated
+in Germany, and then find an occupation in life. In one harbour, Zoar,
+was a lonely missionary and his wife, who had just sent home their
+eighth and last child, a little girl of seven years. “Can you not bring
+me a baby from England? we are so lonely now,” said the good man’s
+wife to me. Even to get a wife they must write home, and one is chosen
+by lot for them. After our visit, they wrote as follows:—
+
+  HOPEDALE, LABRADOR,
+  _September 7th_.
+
+  _To the Council of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen._
+
+ GENTLEMEN,—On behalf of the Moravian Mission here I would ask you
+ to accept our warmest thanks for sending your ship, the _Albert_, to
+ visit us and our people, cut off as we are for so many months in the
+ year from the rest of the world. We feel by its visit that we are
+ within your thoughts. For the comfort we have found in having our
+ hands spiritually strengthened by the presence of other Christian
+ men; for what benefit we have received from medical attendance in our
+ Mission house and in our congregation; for the kind gift of books for
+ our library, and for the blessing we had in joining these meetings
+ kept, and for the pleasure we have had in meeting all those we met
+ from the _Albert_, we beg you to accept our most hearty thanks. May
+ our Lord and Saviour bless your work everywhere, as He has done it
+ here among the fishermen and at our Station.
+
+ With kind and brotherly love, we remain your brethren in Christ,
+
+  P. M. HANSEN,
+  _Moravian Missionary_.
+
+In Hopedale Harbour we stayed many days, for hundreds of vessels kept
+calling in on their way south; for winter was then approaching, and
+already cod-trap boats going to their nets had had to cut through two
+inches of new ice.
+
+On our arrival in St. Johns it was thought advisable to report the
+results and deductions from this experimental voyage. Accordingly his
+Excellency the Governor, Sir Terence O’Brien, invited the leading
+citizens acquainted with the fishery to meet at Government House. The
+report showed that (1) much needless suffering, limbs and special
+functions, besides life itself, were to be saved by the possibility
+of obtaining skilled assistance in the first instance; the famous
+sealing master, Captain Sam Blandford, who was present, stating that
+while he had charge of the mail steamer plying on the coast, seventeen
+unfortunate people had died aboard without possibility of proper
+treatment. (2) That even that year twenty-nine persons had died at one
+harbour in Labrador of diphtheria without being able to get a doctor’s
+help—nay, more, no one would take their fish or visit them to trade a
+winter’s supply. (3) That the doctor on the small mail steamer was so
+short a time in each harbour, and the time of his arrival so uncertain,
+that the people had little confidence in the few moments possible to
+devote to each case, even if they were fortunate enough to see the
+doctor at all, while it was impossible to undertake any serious case
+with success. (4) That poverty and starvation directly result from
+sickness or accident to the breadwinner being left untreated. After
+the report the following proposition was moved by the Hon. A. Harvey,
+and supported by Sir Wm. Whiteway, premier, and Sir Robert Thorborne,
+ex-premier, which was carried unanimously:—
+
+ “_Resolved_—That this meeting, representing the principal merchants
+ and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially on the coast of
+ Labrador, and others interested in the welfare of this colony, desires
+ to tender its warmest thanks to the directors of the Deep Sea Mission
+ for their philanthropic generosity in sending their Hospital ship
+ _Albert_ to visit the fishing settlements on the Labrador coast....
+
+ “Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions beyond the
+ ordinary reach of medical aid or of charity, and it is with the
+ deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount of
+ medical and surgical work done, besides all the other relief and help
+ so liberally distributed. This meeting also desires to express the
+ hope that the directors of the Mission may see their way to continuing
+ the work thus begun, and should they do so they may be assured of the
+ earnest co-operation of all classes of this community.”
+
+His Excellency the Governor then nominated a committee to help to
+perpetuate and extend the operations of the Mission in Labrador. One
+merchant present, Mr. W. Baine Grieve, presented to the Mission a house
+at Battle Harbour for the first hospital.
+
+The _Albert_ soon after left for England. She reached Yarmouth on
+December 1st, where she received a hearty reception from the many
+friends of the work.
+
+In the report of the Chamber of Commerce of Newfoundland the following
+reference to the work was included:—
+
+“A new feature worthy of mention in this report, affecting as it does,
+more or less, the comfort of 20,000 or 30,000 of our people, was the
+appearance on the Labrador coast of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen
+ship _Albert_, outfitted by a philanthropic society in England,
+non-sectarian in its lines, and intended to afford skilled medical
+aid to, and provide to some extent for the mental and material wants
+of our fishermen. This essay has been an unqualified success, and has
+evoked from the recipients of its bounty expressions of deep gratitude,
+while at the same time it has engendered in the breasts of all who
+are interested in the welfare and prosperity of the Colony feelings
+that must strengthen the bonds which bind this comparatively neglected
+dependency to the Mother Country. The vivid portraiture, by the doctor
+in charge, of his own personal experiences on the coast is likely to
+result in well-organized co-operation by the Colony next season upon
+the lines on which the Mission ship is being worked.”
+
+And in February, 1893, the following resolution was received from the
+St. Johns Committee:—
+
+ “That this representative Committee will undertake to provide two
+ suitable buildings which may be used as hospitals by the Mission to
+ Deep Sea Fishermen, should the Council of the Mission signify their
+ intention to continue their operations on the coast of Labrador, and
+ the Committee will heartily co-operate in any other way that the
+ Council of the Society may suggest.
+
+ “That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded to Dr. Grenfell
+ for the information of the Society.
+
+  “(Signed) {T. O’BRIEN, Governor, _Chairman_.
+            {M. MONROE, _Secretary_.”
+
+The council of the Mission replied that they were prepared to fit out a
+second expedition, and to undertake the working of the two hospitals.
+
+During the rest of February, March, and April the captain of the
+_Albert_ and myself held meetings in various towns, in the endeavour
+to raise money to carry on the work. Meanwhile we sent out directions
+for the fitting up of the house given by Mr. Baine Grieve at Battle
+Harbour, and also plans for a wooden hospital, to be built in sections
+in St. Johns, for transference to Indian Harbour, at the entrance to
+Eskimo Bay, one hundred and eighty miles further north.
+
+In April an earnest appeal was made for money to obtain a steam launch,
+to assist the _Albert_, by visiting otherwise inaccessible places,
+and by towing her in and out of narrow harbours. At the same time
+preparations were being pushed ahead at Yarmouth. The _Albert_ was once
+more recalled from her work in the North Sea. She was victualled for
+six months, refitted as far as necessary, and stored with the clothing,
+woollens, and literature which had been in the process of collection
+all winter. A crew was shipped, and by the 1st of May she was all ready
+to sail. Our whaler had been knocked to pieces last year, and we had to
+get a new boat to replace it, or trust still to the money coming in for
+a steam launch.
+
+Arrangements had been made for the _Albert_ to visit one or two English
+seaports on her journey out, in order to solicit further help, amongst
+others Exeter, Swansea, and Bristol, whence she was to sail direct to
+St. Johns. Still the money had not come in. While, however, we were at
+Bristol, our boat still unbought, the joyful news reached us, “Money
+necessary for a launch has now come in.” The _Albert_ touched last of
+all at Swansea, where a suitable rowing boat, the _Mary Grenfell_, was
+presented to her. In Chester we found the most suitable launch for the
+money we had—an oak-built, copper-fastened boat, with simple 9-inch
+engine, six years of age, though only little work had been done in her.
+She was forty-five feet long. Her great defect was her width, which
+was only eight feet, so that, being carvel-built, she would roll most
+dreadfully. However, while the _Albert_ sailed across to Queenstown we
+fitted out the launch at a total cost of £325, and arranged to ship
+it direct by Allan line steamer _Corean_ to St. Johns. On June 1st I
+joined the _Albert_ at Queenstown, and next morning we set sail for
+Newfoundland.
+
+The hospital committee had meanwhile appointed A. O. Bobardt, M.B.,
+M.R.C.S., of Melbourne, Australia, and King’s Hospital, and Eliot
+Curwen, M.B., B.A., of Cambridge and the London Hospital, as medical
+missionaries for the two hospitals. These sailed with us in the
+_Albert_. They had also appointed Miss Cecilia Williams and Miss Ada
+Carwardine to act as matrons and nurses under the doctors, and had
+arranged for them to sail by the same steamer as the launch. We had
+three dirty days on the way out, and once were at close quarters with a
+large iceberg, but the _Albert_ again quitted herself well, and on our
+arrival in St. Johns we again experienced the greatest of kindness. Our
+committee had collected some fifteen hundred dollars. A meeting was at
+once called, and a small executive of two members were appointed for
+each hospital, the Hon. M. Monroe acting for Battle Harbour and Mr. W.
+C. Job for Indian Harbour.
+
+On the arrival of the launch she was at once put into order for
+starting, while the nurses joined the _Albert_, as the best way to
+reach their respective stations. Meanwhile the Indian Harbour hospital
+was sent on by steamer to Labrador. But a pleasing function yet
+remained to be done—the christening of the new launch. A telegram had
+reached us that the Princess May, who had long been interested in the
+Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, had consented to allow it to be named
+after her. Accordingly on May 6th, amidst much rejoicing and display
+of bunting, Her Excellency Lady O’Brien christened our launch the
+_Princess May_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: The _Princess May_ in Hamilton Inlet.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+_OUR SECOND SEASON_
+
+
+On Friday, July 7th, with a steward, an engineer, and Dr. Bobardt as my
+companion, the _Princess May_ left St. Johns for Labrador, the _Albert_
+having left the previous day. It was not without some feelings of
+misdoubt that we first encountered the swell of the Atlantic, knowing
+we should not make harbour till night; and as we had two large bays
+to cross, none of us being familiar with the coast, we had hoped for
+a clear day to enable us to keep the land in sight; but here again we
+were disappointed, for the rebound from the cliffs forced us to stand
+out half a mile to sea, and a dense fog shut everything from view.
+Not having yet given the launch a trial ourselves, and she being six
+years of age, we were not surprised after the first five miles, when
+the engineer sang out, “Sprung a leak, sir; shall we put back?” An
+examination revealed the fact that we could stop the leak with a wood
+plug; and so to disappoint some few “croakers,” who had “told us so,”
+we settled to stand on. Our compass having only a card disc, and not
+being filled with spirit to steady it, proved very unsteady, our narrow
+width, of only eight feet, making us roll very rapidly. We adopted the
+method of endeavouring to steer midway between the extreme points the
+needle swung to, and then to keep one point inside our course so that
+we should not run out to sea. Very shortly this resulted in bringing
+us up straight before a perpendicular cliff. Evidently our compass was
+incorrect. An examination revealed that its box had been screwed on
+to the cabin with large iron screws, the proper binnacle having been
+broken on the voyage out, and being still at the optician’s in St.
+Johns. These we soon extracted, and making a fresh start to the nor’ard
+sighted Bacalhao Island, about forty miles from St. Johns, at mid-day.
+
+Not having sighted any more land by 5 p.m., we began to think it was
+time to turn inshore, and after some time found ourselves suddenly
+amidst numbers of ragged rocks and small islands. Our chart book
+described on the north side of Trinity Bay some “Ragged Islands”; and
+we guessed we had struck among these, so once more we stood out into
+the fog. Shortly a weird noise attracted our attention. We stopped and
+listened. Yes, it was a fog-horn. This confirmed our recent diagnosis
+of “Ragged Islands,” and once more we knew where we were. Night saw
+us safely berthed in Catalina Harbour, where we managed to coal ship
+before going to rest. With no small feelings of satisfaction we went
+below that night. True the locker was hard to lie on, but the anxiety
+and subsequent success of that first day was a sure soporific, combined
+with the fact that the previous night had been none too restful, for
+we had then no confidence in the powers of the _Princess May_. Here we
+found our compass was still incorrect, so we unshipped it altogether
+and carried it forward, to be further from the magnetic influence of
+certain iron handles. Right gaily we left harbour next morning, but
+outside found a new experience. The wind had veered round and was
+blowing on shore, with a chilling drizzly rain to enhance the effect of
+the nasty lop of the sea. Our loose deck gear began to go overboard,
+and among it our boat-hook took leave of us. Being heavy at one end it
+disappeared from sight at once. It was gaily painted black and white,
+and we were sorry to lose it, being our only one. As I looked back it
+suddenly rose again, lifting its painted handle high out of water, as
+if to ask for help. We couldn’t well desert it after that, and so went
+round to pick it up. Our log has no record of the number of circles
+we completed; but if the reader has ever pursued a stick with one
+heavy end in a choppy sea, he will find it usually disappears just
+as the vessel has completed the tedious manœuvres necessary to come
+up to it. The next question was, should we venture further? The mail
+steamer was just coming out behind us, and it wouldn’t look well to
+give up. We would try for Cape Bonavista. By ten o’clock the Cape was
+safely rounded, and the wind increasing we determined to lay into the
+Bay, which is twenty-eight miles across. We should not have reached
+Greenspond, north of the bay, that night, had we steamed the course we
+intended; but after some hours steaming and seeing no land, we spied a
+fishing boat, and went alongside for information as to our locality.
+We found we were already across the bay to our great surprise and joy.
+It appeared that Dr. Bobardt, who had steered all day, had headed two
+points to the westward of his course.
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Male Ward, Indian Harbour.]
+
+We were loath to steam on Sunday, but our next run round Cape Freels
+was a most difficult one, from the numberless off-lying rocks and
+shoals. So when three a.m. showed a clear horizon and a calm sea, we
+started off. Alas, fog fell on us shortly, and left us threading our
+way through the labyrinth. Now and again we could see bottom, and at
+times some rock near the surface, over which at intervals the swell
+would break with a noise like thunder. The _Princess May_ did well
+this day—covering eighty miles—and the mail steamer, which had only
+just reached and was anchored for the night in Toulinguet Harbour,
+was surprised to see us come in and tie up alongside. The fourth day
+saw us on the French shore, as we rounded Cape John at mid-day. Here,
+however, we met a strong head wind, against which we had no alternative
+but to steam. Now, to provide some kind of cabin, a little house had
+been built into the fore-part of the launch, with a square glass front,
+being inside just about the size and shape of the ordinary ’bus. As we
+steamed into the head sea, it was just up to this part of the cabin,
+which projected a couple of feet above deck, that the launch dived,
+with the result that a sort of water spout was thrown up and then
+dropped on deck. Yet, as everything was closed up, no water got below,
+and we managed to make a harbour to the north side of the headland. The
+water, however, got everywhere but below, and we were glad of a change
+after dropping anchor.
+
+At almost all the places we called at along the French shore, we
+found the people very poor and but little educated. Unfortunately
+in Newfoundland the Sectarian School system prevails, with a most
+disastrous result among these poor and scattered communities. In all
+we found some who were anxious to avail themselves of the visit of a
+doctor. In many no qualified medical man ever goes; and on the part
+known to us, that is the east coast, there are none at all resident. In
+the lonely harbour we were now in, called Pacquet, a man soon emerged
+from the woods and came off to us in a boat. He was ill-clad and looked
+equally ill-fed, and his boy, who was with him, was suffering from a
+pustular disease of the skin, for which we prescribed. Though it was
+warm where we were anchored the inlet was still partially choked by two
+large icebergs, and our friend told us that want of a net, and indeed
+any proper fishing gear, as yet prevented their getting any fish. The
+mosquitos were here very numerous and very busy. It was impossible
+almost to go ashore even for fresh water from the river at the head
+of the inlet, and indeed when the dingey came back, a cloud of these
+bloodthirsty pests followed her to the launch, and invited themselves
+to spend the night in our already sufficiently crowded cabin. Professor
+Hind narrates an Indian tradition that mosquitos were created for the
+benefit of a saint, who, for disobedience, had been banished from
+heaven to a desert part of the earth. In her solitude she prayed for
+even flies as companions, whereupon mosquitos and black flies were
+created. This gave her plenty of employment till it was time for her
+to return, but the flies remained in order to teach men the folly of
+trying to divert their attention from the consequences of their sins
+by seeking amusement. Captain Whitbourne says they are of great use to
+make the idle work.
+
+We were early astir next morning, and took a course for the St. Barbe
+Islands. But a breeze rising towards the land, we made a detour in
+order to cross White Bay, which is eighteen miles at its narrowest
+point, and so lay across till we were seven or eight miles only from
+land. Then we again headed north, and by nine o’clock, with a good
+breeze behind us, crossed Hare Bay and ran into St. Anthony Harbour.
+During the day a curious mirage had for some time kept us under the
+impression that we were hedged in by floe ice. We could see the
+vertical edge, the gleaming white top, and what appeared to be even
+cracks, fissures, and hummocks. It turned out to be only an optical
+illusion, and we found that it kept retreating before us all the
+afternoon like a will-of-the-wisp. At St. Anthony we were among friends
+of last year, so were soon ashore, and the day closed with a hearty
+service in the kitchen of the largest house.
+
+The breeze increasing, delayed us a day in this port, but before
+daylight on the 13th we left for an attempt to cross the Straits
+of Belle Isle. As we rounded Cape Bauld a most magnificent crimson
+light lit up the whole horizon. Against it stood out many stately
+icebergs, rising weird and ghostly from the deep purple of the sea.
+One of immense height looked just like some gigantic cathedral, its
+gabled roof in the red glow shining like burnished gold, while ever
+and anon the stillness preceding dawn was broken by the deep boom of
+the Atlantic swell reverberating from some hollow chasm at its base,
+suggesting a mighty organ played in its vast recesses. No sooner had
+we passed it in silence than the engineer touched me on the arm and
+pointed back at its lordly summit. “Look, sir! isn’t that some one on
+the berg?” And there, sure enough, plain and sharp against the sky, on
+the crest, stood the figure of a man. But our glasses soon dispelled
+the illusion. It was but a pinnacle with a thin base, which, when thus
+seen edgeways, so closely resembled a human figure.
+
+From here we headed for the Sacred Islands, and a breeze making up the
+straits, we ran in behind Cape Onion to see what sort of a day it was
+going to be, before we ventured to cross the straits. I was surprised,
+on landing, at the quantity and variety of wild flowers here.
+There were represented among many others, saxifrages, umbellifers,
+composites, ranunculi, primulas, and gentians. The insectivorous
+“Drosera” is common on the heights, and the beautiful “Linnæus
+borealis” nestles in among the scrub.
+
+The country, viewed from the head, is very peculiar, being, as far as
+the eye could range, one immense flat plain, with quite as much water
+as dry land, from the innumerable winding ponds or lakes of fresh water.
+
+By mid-day we ventured to make a start, and headed direct for Cape
+Charles, close inside the island of Belle Isle. As we brought the
+hills and steep cliffs of Labrador into view, we found there was still
+much snow in the gulfs and crevices; while it was necessary carefully
+to thread our way among the numbers of icebergs, which up to this
+very week had been blocking the straits. By sundown we sighted the
+flag-staff on Battle Island, and at 7.30 were once more alongside the
+_Albert_. A crowded gathering below decks closed the day, all being
+full of joy and hope at the prospect of another season’s work.
+
+Next day the house given by Mr. Baine Grieve was inspected, and we
+found that Mr. Hall, the agent for the fishery, had already placed it
+almost in a condition for occupation. The _Albert’s_ crew also had
+been at work—carpentering, painting, and landing heavy goods, such as
+bedsteads, bedding, food, drugs, and furniture.
+
+Meanwhile, the hospital for Indian Harbour, at the mouth of Hamilton
+inlet, had been sent north, ready cut in sections in the coastal
+steamer, _Winsor Lake_. Two carpenters had also been sent north to
+work at its erection. Next day, therefore, our party divided again,
+the _Albert_ going north to help with the second hospital, having on
+board Dr. Curwen and Sister Williams, while I, in the _Princess May_,
+went south along the straits of Belle Isle, Dr. Bobart and Sister
+Carwardine remaining at Battle. This arrangement was rendered possible
+by the agent extending his generous hospitality to the nurse and doctor
+indefinitely.
+
+Our first run took us to Red Bay, where we at once were among friends
+of last year. Alas, poverty and want had laid their hands heavily on
+this place, and some families had been nearly naked and next door to
+starving all winter. Not only had 1892 been a poor fishery, but now
+the best chance for 1893, viz. the caplin school of cod, had come and
+gone, while densely packed ice, held in by persistent easterly winds,
+had prevented the men getting their nets out.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A Newfoundlander’s Hut, Labrador.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_OUR VOYAGE CONTINUED_
+
+
+On our arrival in a harbour our method was, as last year, to hoist
+our blue flag to announce our arrival, to then visit any seriously
+sick I could hear of, after which we had evening service in a shed,
+stage, or house, and then, last of all, any could come for advice or
+assistance. To every family or vessel a good bundle of reading was
+given if they wished it, all the literature being selected at home as
+healthy and suitable for fishermen. If any wanted God’s Word, that,
+too, was to be had for asking for it; while a register was kept of
+all the poor, describing as accurately as we could the nature of the
+needs and deserts of each case, in order that when, at the end of the
+year, we divided up the warm clothing we had brought out, it should
+fall into the hands of the most deserving. In this way also we became
+possessed of a valuable record for future reference. Thus in one house
+when visiting a case, I found my patient to be the mother of a large
+family. The poor thing, who, with self-sacrificing courage, had refused
+to believe herself ill till she could get about no more, was lying on
+one single wood form in a bare and dirty room, her head close to an old
+cracked stove, behind which a crowd of shivering urchins were huddled
+together. The sickness was acute bronchitis and pleurisy, made worse by
+little clothing and less food. A haggard man meanwhile was pacing up
+and down, nursing a screaming and hungry baby. I pulled the children
+out from behind the stove for inspection; but their rags so failed to
+cover them, that each hastened back at once after the ordeal to the
+seclusion and warmth behind the old stove. The complete attire of one
+bony little mite was an old trouser leg, into which he was packed like
+a sack. All were alike barefooted.
+
+Staying here over Sunday, I was the guest of a Labrador fisherman,
+rather better off than the majority, an erect, grey-haired man of
+about forty-five, standing some six feet two inches. His cottage,
+built with his own hands, was a pattern of neatness and cleanliness,
+but the bad seasons were compelling even him to desert the harbour,
+and try squatting farther along the coast. He was still the fortunate
+possessor, however, of a cod-trap (value about £80), by means of which
+he still hoped to end the year out of debt. He was the class leader for
+the neighbourhood, and had many years been standing on the Lord’s side,
+and, indeed, after the Wesleyan Missionary for the Straits, he was the
+backbone of the religious life of the place. Such an one, where every
+detail of one’s life is known, must indeed be an “Epistle read of all
+men,” of which fact he was well aware, as also, that his neighbours,
+while unable or undesirous to read God’s word for themselves, measured
+the claims of God on their own life very largely by his actions. This
+we found to obtain more or less along the whole coast, especially among
+these scattered communities, where little or no provision is made for
+their spiritual needs. When therefore Sunday morning broke, and a
+large iceberg was noticed drifting towards his cod-trap, threatening
+to deprive him of his means of earning his daily bread, he at first
+decided to go and spend the day working to save his net. But soon he
+came back, saying, “I’ve decided not to go, doctor; there are those in
+this harbour that only want a pretext for working on the Lord’s Day,
+and I’ll not be the one to give it them.” As we climbed the hill to the
+little wooden chapel I noticed him standing and greeting the people as
+they came along, according to his custom, as if forgetful of the fact
+that the mass of ice was at that moment probably robbing him of his
+all. We had three _such_ services that day; the Wesleyan missionary,
+the Rev. John Sidey, was present, and more than one of our hearts
+were full at the evidence of the reality of God’s Spirit among this
+out-of-the-way, isolated people. Long before sunrise on Monday, indeed
+immediately after midnight, my good host was away in his boat after the
+wreck of his cod-trap, and by breakfast had returned, his face radiant
+with the same happy smile he always has, saying, “I _knew_ it would be
+all right, doctor. The worst of the ice passed outside it; a few hours’
+work, and we shall get it all right again.”
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Indian Harbour Hospital.]
+
+In the Straits of Belle Isle we visited all the stations to Old Ford
+Island, about 100 miles from the entrance. At L’Anse au Loup, Blanc
+Sablon (the boundary between Canada and Newfoundland), and at Bonne
+Esperance, we found large stations for fishing, with numbers of men
+hard at work at the caplin school. We had quite a number of surgical
+and medical cases, including two of true (sailor’s) scurvy from want
+of proper food. At one place we were called to operate on the back
+of a French settler, at another on the arm of a poor Newfoundland
+schooner-man. In this last case I had the assistance of a Roman
+Catholic priest who was journeying along the coast.
+
+While visiting in Forteau Bay we passed close to the wreck of H.M.S.
+_Lily_. We found here that a Beaver line steamer, the S.S. _Lake
+Nepigon_, had recently run ashore. While journeying down the straits
+she had struck on a whale-back iceberg, and was sinking head foremost,
+like the _Victoria_, when her captain succeeded in grounding her
+on one of the few bits of sand for miles. Her screw and rudder were
+practically out of water when she took the bottom, with her bows in 27
+feet. The doctor aboard had spent three days on shore near, and had
+operated on one cancer of the lip and on an old compound dislocation
+of the wrist in a young girl. These came to us to have the stitches
+removed.
+
+While returning from visiting a patient at Greenly Island in thick
+fog, we were unfortunate enough to run the _Princess May_ ashore. It
+was as dark as pitch at the time, and we had burnt all our flares out
+while threading our way through a quantity of schooners at anchor. Two
+men on the bows of the boat, after a long pause to search for some
+guidance, had just given the word “all right ahead,” when we ran up on
+a flat-topped rock, and found that high, almost perpendicular, cliffs
+were only a few yards ahead. Throwing out our dingey, and removing
+all superfluous weight from the bows, we succeeded shortly in getting
+off; and guided by the stentorian shouts of some men from a schooner,
+alternating with their fog-horn, we found our way alongside and made
+fast to her. As we were too many even to lie down on the launch I went
+aboard the schooner, the hospitable skipper of which insisted on my
+turning into his bunk. He was only just back, apparently, with a load
+of fish from his traps, and hearing the echo of our voices from the
+cliffs had guessed something was wrong. He added, “there is fish to be
+had now, and so I don’t turn in at all myself”; and sure enough, after
+a shake down and some supper he and his crew disappeared into the foggy
+darkness for a fresh load from the trap, while sleep reigned supreme on
+board. He turned out to be a green-fish catcher, who was “making” his
+fish on his vessel.
+
+Further along the straits, at Bonne Esperance, we met with a more
+serious mishap, for while returning from a visit up Salmon River our
+propeller refused to rotate, and we had to depend on our sail. The
+kindness of the first engineer of a sealing steamer (Mr. William
+Crossman) anchored in the harbour set us all right again, however, for
+he made us a complete set of new steel screws for our piston-top—our
+own had given out, and we neither had means of making new ones, or
+replacing them, in Labrador. After one or two other similar mishaps,
+but having treated some one hundred and fifty patients, and having
+received much kindness and a warm welcome wherever we had been, we
+reached Battle Hospital again on the 29th of July. We brought a dying
+fisherman the last 80 miles with us, which necessitated his sleeping
+three nights in my cabin. He was still in the prime of life, but
+pneumonia developed into gangrene of the lungs, and he subsequently
+died in Battle Harbour Hospital.
+
+The Sunday passed pleasantly and rapidly among the people here. After
+evening service, held by the schoolmaster in the little church, we had
+a good “fishermen’s meeting.” Dr. Bobardt was away all day visiting
+sick people on a neighbouring island, and holding service among
+them. No patients were yet allowed in hospital, though it now only
+remained to cover the floors and get the stores in. Sister Carwardine
+had therefore arranged for the nursing of one poor woman, on whom an
+operation had been necessary, in a room of a cottage near at hand.
+
+As the mail steamer was shortly expected, and would certainly bring
+patients for the hospital, the following day was spent by all hands in
+rendering the hospital inhabitable; and by evening our first patient
+was comfortably located in a room on the ground floor, while the sister
+spent her first night in hospital in an arm-chair.
+
+Next day, before leaving for the north, Dr. Bobardt again being away
+visiting, I was called on to bury a poor fellow, father of a family
+of five, who had died from consumption in a neighbouring cove. The
+burial-ground is a small plot at the bottom of a deep ravine on the
+seaboard side of the island. On each side rose barren rocky crags,
+behind was the bleak island top, while in front lay the great Atlantic,
+bearing on its heaving bosom, as far as the eye could see, countless
+mighty icebergs. As the sad procession wound along the defile, carrying
+in its rude wood covering what was so recently a living, hopeful human
+being; as they laid it in its last long resting-place amidst these cold
+and desolate surroundings, the craving for something beyond the grave
+burnt fiercely in every heart; while the joy of knowing of a Heavenly
+Father, who has given us victory even over the grave, was realized as a
+priceless possession which the world cannot give—no, nor sell either.
+
+Our next object was to visit the coast up to Indian Harbour, calling
+for coal and a few supplies left for us half-way up by the _Albert_, at
+a place called Bateau. In making a narrow inlet called Francis Harbour,
+we found much difficulty in getting in; for after long searching for
+the entrance, it proved to be blocked with ice, and a circuitous method
+inside an island was unknown to us. However, once inside the warmth
+of our welcome made up for the suspense outside, and after service
+in the neat and commodious parlour of the agent’s (Mr. Penny) house,
+we had a _levée_ of sick visitors till midnight. We next entered a
+deep narrow cleft in a high mountain, running parallel with the sea,
+nowhere wider than a stone’s throw. It is very deep, and high hills of
+bright red rocks rise abruptly on both hands. On the outer side are
+perched houses and fishing stages. This is known as Venison Tickle. The
+agent (Mr. Hawker) received us most warmly, and being himself doctor,
+parson, planter, and all combined, took me round at once to the various
+sick and injured. One poor old fisherman, suffering from apoplectic
+paralysis, we sent to hospital at Battle, though we learnt from a
+schooner that already it was nearly full.
+
+Landing on a low island as we passed north, we found the eider-duck
+nesting in considerable numbers, while in the little pools among the
+rocks were young ducks and young gulls in numbers. Of the latter we
+caught several for our stew-pot. We steamed thence fifteen miles to
+Boulter’s Rock Harbour by a long narrow channel inside two enormous
+islands, the passage being known as Squasho Run. Fog succeeded fog all
+along this part of the coast, and it was only by the help of volunteer
+local pilots we succeeded in finding many of the harbours.
+
+One dark night, unable to find our way further, we dropped our anchor
+inside some outlying islands called Seal Islands. It seemed to us that
+we had hardly got straight and settled down for the night’s rest before
+we heard a boat bumping against our side. In such a lonely place, and
+in a thick drizzly fog at night, a superstitious person might well
+have started. Soon we heard the soft tread of a mocassin over the
+half-inch boarding which, covered with painted canvas, served us as a
+roof; then a bustling at the hatchway door, and soon the broad face of
+a half-breed Eskimo peered into the cabin. It appeared he had a very
+sick daughter at his hut on the island, near which no doctor ever went.
+He had heard of the _Princess May_ being about; and seeing our cabin
+lights shining as he chanced to pass in his boat homewards, he had come
+in search of assistance. Soon, swathed in oilskins, I was sitting in
+the stern of his boat, while he swiftly rowed away into the darkness.
+Landing, and following closely behind him over broken rock for some
+quarter mile, brought me to his cottage, which, in true Labrador
+fashion, was well filled with inhabitants. Among them I found two
+seriously ill, one a young man of eighteen, the other a young married
+woman of about thirty. On this poor woman it was necessary to operate
+on our way south in order to save life even for the time; but as we
+had no hospital open in winter, she had to be left in that crowded hut
+to the tender mercies of the most unskilled of nurses, and though any
+communication with the island has been impossible since, I fear she
+will not have survived the winter.[15]
+
+[Footnote 15: 1895. She has perfectly recovered, in the most marvellous
+manner.—W. T. G.]
+
+I was one day asked, a little further north, to visit a woman reported
+to have been ill in bed for three months, and who was living up a bay
+fully ten miles from any fishing station. At length, dropping our
+anchor off the spot indicated, which was the mouth of a large salmon
+river, we blew our whistle repeatedly to try and attract her husband’s
+attention. After some time a small boat put out with one man sculling
+in the stern. He seemed to approach warily, and the man piloting me
+took in the situation in a moment. As soon as the small boat was
+alongside, he greeted the oarsman with “It’s all up; come aboard and
+surrender quietly, or you will be shot down.” The condemning reply came
+back, “Indeed, sir, the river isn’t barred. It couldn’t be barred. No
+nets would hold across it. It never has been barred. I wouldn’t bar
+the river. You can come and see for yourself.” We got into his boat,
+and he started with us to the shore, when I asked him if the launch
+was safe at her anchorage, as darkness was coming on. The prompt reply
+was that she would be aground on rocks at low water, and that we had
+better steam across the inlet and anchor the other side, where it was
+soft and good holding ground, at which our engineer at once proceeded
+to get steam again. On landing, I asked for the sick woman, and was
+shown into the most miserable dark hovel I ever saw. By a wretched
+tin chimneyless lamp I examined my patient. She was lying clad in one
+old petticoat on a few sacks spread over a kind of built-up bunk. Her
+bodily ailments were fortunately not great, but as she told me, and I
+believe truthfully, having no clothes to get up in, she was obliged to
+stay where she was. Turning to go out, I stumbled over our boatman, who
+at once commenced most profuse apologies. It appears he was just off
+to destroy his “bar,” when my pilot had told him I was not an excise
+officer, and the _Princess May_ was not a gunboat. So he went off to
+tell the engineer the anchorage was good enough, I fear that is not the
+only barred salmon river in Labrador.
+
+Further north we steamed up Sandwich Bay, and visited, among other
+places, Cartwright, now a Hudson Bay post, but founded about 1790 by
+an English trader of that name. Here again we had a serious case to
+deal with. A girl of fourteen had been ill with internal abscess for
+between two and three years. She was sent to hospital after a trifling
+operation, and remained there a month. When I returned south I found
+her well and happy, and she told me she was only sorry she could not
+live in hospital.
+
+I was interested in examining at Cartwright a marble tomb, raised,
+as the inscription proclaimed, “to commemorate the piety and zeal of
+the founder of this colony.” Some humble lichens had, in the course
+of time, grown in between the slabs, and with irresistible power had
+forced them open, revealing to the prying eye within not the crumbling
+dust of the departed trader, but a mighty demijohn of rum, no doubt
+made mellow by long years of waiting. Alas! that there are those to-day
+whose memory would be most aptly treasured by such an epigram, whom in
+life, for their riches’ sake, a blinded world “delights to honour.”
+
+We were now only two hands on the launch, the engineer and myself, for
+our steward had returned to Battle Hospital. We were therefore anxious
+to push ahead, and on August 10th we were glad to run into Indian
+Harbour, and again “bring to” alongside the _Albert_. We found to our
+sorrow that bad weather had prevented the landing of our hospital
+till a month after we had expected; and, though all available hands
+had been at work, it was found impossible to occupy it this season.
+We therefore decided, as soon as the shell was finished and all done
+that could be without cutting the chimneys, to board up the windows,
+store the property in it, and leave it for the winter under care of
+the nearest “Livyere.” Meanwhile Dr. Curwen and Nurse Williams would
+remain on the _Albert_, and use it as their hospital. This place is
+the centre of a very large number of stations, and they had already
+found ample scope for work. Just before we left in the _Princess May_,
+both doctor and sister were summoned over the island to treat a woman
+on whom a fish stage had fallen, while they already had in the ship’s
+hospital a young girl dying of consumption. The condition in which some
+of our patients were when first admitted was horrible; the condition of
+the women from the green-fish catchers especially; for with scarcely
+any privacy, and scarcely any opportunities for washing, it was not to
+be wondered at that vermin often abounded. The experience of both our
+nurses tallied in this respect, and a good wash, clean clothes, and a
+few days’ nursing always appeared to work marvels, even in apparently
+hopeless cases. When it became evident that this poor girl must die,
+she expressed her determination to go home by the first opportunity,
+that, if possible, she might reach her family in Newfoundland before
+the end came.
+
+It was ten o’clock at night, and a blustering evening in Cape Webeck
+Harbour, when we next met the mail steamer going south. With much
+difficulty we got our poor patient into the boat, wrapped over and over
+in clean blankets; two of us in the stern sheets holding the large
+bundle in our arms, while Captain Trezise and his men rowed us down the
+harbour. Getting her up the steamer’s side was, however, a still less
+easy task, but was at last accomplished, and she was soon ensconced in
+a bunk in the saloon. Fortunately we had decided that Nurse Williams
+should now return to Battle Harbour to help Nurse Carwardine, for
+the hospital there was now overflowing into huts around, and our
+in-patients could be kept down to one or two. The nurse therefore was
+able to tend to her wants during the journey down. Eventually she
+reached St. Johns, where the Rev. Dr. Harvey most kindly met her,
+got her to the train and off to her home; so that her last wish was
+gratified, and she passed away peacefully among her loved ones.
+
+At Cape Harrison we had a really hot Sunday, the flat cabin reflecting
+the sun so fiercely from the water that our very paint began to
+blister. Such a chance was not to be lost, and the fisherfolk gathered
+from far and near. One company, who journeyed from their schooner in
+King’s Arm, must have travelled some ten miles to us, rowing first to
+Sloop Harbour, then walking over the high cape, and then rowing again
+to Webeck Island; while even as we went to and fro from the meetings,
+which, owing to the numbers, we were obliged to hold on the shore, we
+heard sounds of hymns and praying from some of the mud huts we passed.
+It was a day indeed to be remembered. Our longest single expedition
+during this time had been to the Hudson Bay post of Rigoulette, up
+Hamilton inlet, some fifty miles from the entrance. Here we had several
+patients; and especially one little lad with a diseased bone in the
+leg—part of this it was necessary to remove. At the operation we were
+ably helped by the wife of the agent (Mr. Wilson), who proved herself
+a most able nurse and assistant. The difference of temperature up this
+long inlet is very marked, and we found the children of the house
+actually picnicing outside the hut in a canvas tent. [Illustration:
+The S.S. _Princess May_ in Merchantman Harbour.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+_CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE_
+
+
+Our next meeting with the _Albert_ was arranged for Hopedale, the
+first station of the Moravian brethren. In the meanwhile we visited
+such harbours as Ironbound Island, Ragged Islands, Roger’s Harbour,
+Long Island, Ailik, Turnavik, and Winsor Harbour. Again we had one
+or two serious cases: one poor fellow with cancer of the gullet; one
+from whom it was necessary to amputate two fingers, and from another
+one finger. While at Winsor Harbour, we decided to visit an off-lying
+island, called “Double Island,” from which the Hopedale Eskimo had
+their summer fishery. Unfortunately it is not even indicated on the
+charts, and missing our way to it we got entangled among a series of
+reefs. At sundown a strong northerly wind arose, making the water boil
+in foaming breakers over the shallow patches. This however in reality
+assisted us, for we were thus able to avoid the hidden dangers, as any
+shallow likely to pick up the _Princess May_ was now a white seething
+mass; indeed, I have found places where we saw the water break as deep
+as five to fifteen fathoms. We had decided at last to “heave to” under
+the lee of an island, keeping steam all night for fear of a shift of
+wind, when through our glasses we descried against the horizon a ragged
+tent. Steering for this we soon descried figures of some of the little
+people skurrying to and fro after their fish as fast as they could go,
+for the sky looked threatening, and they did not wish the fish to get
+wet again. Our steam whistle at once caught their attention, and soon
+two of their little boats came shooting out through the surf.
+
+With their help we were safely moored fore and aft in a little narrow
+creek, and a few minutes later saw us ashore. Amongst them we noticed
+many friends of last year, especially a dear old man, a sort of
+Christian father among them, named Daniel. A profuse hand-shaking
+and welcoming ensued, and then they intimated they wished me to come
+up to one of their tents. My Eskimo was exhausted, however, with
+Auchenai—How do you do? (or, literally, Be ye strong?), and Aila,
+yes, and a few other every-day expressions. When, therefore, I was
+set down on a low box in the tent, with a space in front of me for
+the patients to squat, and the rest of the ground available densely
+packed with Esquimaux, I was confronted with the difficulties of a
+veterinary surgeon. Among other things a toe, frost-bitten last winter,
+had to be removed; apparently not such a painful operation as one might
+have supposed at first, and one in which the patient appeared to take
+a personal interest, from the proud fact that she occupied on that
+account the position of most importance.
+
+At Hopedale I left the _Albert_ again, and, joined by one of the
+Moravian Brethren—a Dane (Rev. P. Hansen), proceeded at once further
+north. Together we visited as far as Okkak, though the entire absence
+of charts, and the innumerable islands and labyrinths, made us more
+than once end up in a blind tickle. At Zoar we deposited our deck cargo
+of coal, piling up wood on our cabin top instead, and lashing a ladder
+against our foremast, from the top of which in the clear water it was
+possible to see rocks in time to avoid them. We passed on our way
+immense flocks of water-fowl. While in places the rocks shine with the
+beautiful blue or yellow sheen of the Labrador felspar, the trees get
+perceptibly fewer and smaller as Okkak is approached, the shrubs more
+stunted, and the berries more scarce, until north of Hebron no trees at
+all are found.
+
+With much perseverance and labour the brethren at each station raise
+a few potatoes, cabbages and flowers, but when trees are cut down
+for wood they do not replace themselves in a man’s lifetime. It is
+impossible in these pages to recount all the incidents of this part of
+the trip. At each station I had numerous patients—Eskimo and white.
+In the former cases my dear friend and whilom companion, the Rev. P.
+Hansen, interpreted. At each station also we gathered daily for prayer
+and exhortation, and for me the time passed all too quickly. Now,
+however, the approach of winter was making itself felt. Schooners were
+flying south before every favourable breeze, and in so small a boat as
+the _Princess May_ no unnecessary delay was advisable. On the 8th of
+September we again reached Hopedale, and were surprised to find the
+_Albert_ still there.
+
+A terrible tragedy had occurred in a neighbouring inlet. It appeared
+some men fishing, from an island called East Turnavik, had gone up to
+boil their tea-kettle at a solitary house on a promontory of Kipekok
+Bay. On entering they at first found no one at home, but during the
+process of tea-making came across two women lying on the floor of the
+passage covered over with a counterpane. At first they thought they
+were merely enjoying an afternoon sleep, but soon found both were
+dead; hereupon they at once beat a hasty retreat to their own island,
+and next day came back with half-a-dozen more men and the planter. A
+search revealed two more dead women in an inner room, while no trace of
+the two men who lived there could be found.
+
+Next day, however, these returned with wood from the bay, saying they
+had been away making coffins for the last four days. The circumstances
+were so suspicious, and one of the men bore such an exceedingly
+bad character on the coast—having been suspected of deeds as dark
+before—that the two neighbouring planters advised an inquiry, and
+sent up their steam launch to Hopedale for Dr. Curwen to come and make
+an examination. From the evidence taken from the men, and the general
+appearances of the case, he was convinced they had died of poisoning.
+Eventually the head of the police was sent down from St. Johns, and,
+confessing to another crime, the worst of the two men was taken away
+and placed in Harbour Grace Jail for the winter.
+
+Whilst endeavouring one night to navigate a narrow passage known as
+“the Rattle,” the _Princess May_ had been suddenly caught by the
+current, and at full speed taken a rocky bottom. The tide was falling
+at the time, and all hopes of getting off before morning had to be
+abandoned. Our ladder and some large blocks of wood lashed together
+were therefore placed under her port bilge, and she was listed over on
+to them by all the moveable weights we had. After a very uneasy night,
+which fortunately held calm, we got safely off. It was necessary now
+to inspect the launch’s bottom. We therefore grounded her in Hopedale
+Harbour, and at low tide examined her outer casing. She proved to be
+nastily dinted in one or two places: a bit of her keel was gone, and a
+few inches of copper torn off here and there, but her hull was still
+as sound as a drum. Not so her shaft. We found that it had worn very
+considerably inside the propeller, and the outer end had so dropped
+that another two inches and the screw would be unable to rotate. For
+this we had no remedy, and had nothing for it but to “Go ahead.”
+Sunday, the 10th of September, we spent in Hopedale, the harbour of
+which was now crowded with no less than 100 schooners; and though the
+Brethren put at our disposal their large chapel, capable of holding
+some 400 people, Captain Trezise found it necessary in the evening to
+hold an overflow service on the _Albert_.
+
+[Illustration: An Eskimo Family, Hopedale.]
+
+It was with no ordinary feelings of sorrow that we heard at Emily
+Harbour that the _Albert_ had been ashore. To think of her splendid
+frame and delicate lines the sport of these cruel jagged rocks was
+heartrending. The beautiful little ship which had smiled at so many
+storms, and carried those entrusted to her so many thousands of miles
+so faithfully and safely. It appears she was trying to make West
+Turnavik Harbour at night, and the pilot who came off from shore
+mistook the blind entrance for the real one. Both anchors were at
+the time ready for letting go, and the moment the mistake was noticed
+were run out. But as the vessel swung to, her stern came down on the
+rocks, and for nearly three hours bumped heavily. By the help of
+Captain Bartlett and some sixty men she was eventually warped safely
+off; but it was found necessary, in the dry dock at St. Johns, to
+replace 35 feet of her keel.
+
+Rough weather characterized our journey south, and, indeed, often
+rendered it very difficult getting round the great capes at all. We
+revisited, where possible, all the places we visited going north,
+and also others we had been obliged to pass by. Thus we saw again
+many of our former patients, distributed to many the clothing we were
+able to allot them, and also had the joy of seeing once again, before
+winter set in, some of those who were commencing in earnest to live
+consecrated lives. When the weather kept us longer than we intended in
+a harbour, we brought into use our magic lantern, for which we had some
+beautiful slides of the life of Christ, Bible lands, and some simple
+stories. This never failed to bring a crowd together, even if sleeping
+the night in the building became necessary for those who came from too
+far to return; and, indeed, we eventually often preceded our services
+with the views through the magic lantern.
+
+On Thursday, October 19th, we once more steamed into Battle Harbour,
+where we found the _Albert_ had preceded us by a couple of days. Dr.
+Bobardt and the sisters were still busy and in good health. Hospital
+had been full all the time, and thirty-nine in-patients had been
+treated. Only one other death had occurred in hospital—a young girl
+from a schooner, who had died of cellulitis from neglected sores, which
+had assumed the characteristics of erysipelas. We were delighted to
+hear that the fishery here had been good. Mr. Hall, the agent, had
+again been first away with a steamer loaded for market. After all
+the time and attention he had so generously bestowed on our work, by
+lending the launch when it could be spared, by loan of men for the
+hospital, by entertaining nurses, doctors, and others, we could but
+rejoice that his fishery had been a really successful one. Our only
+regret now was that no hospital could be kept open during this winter.
+
+Bad weather prevailed during our journey to St. Johns. The _Albert_, in
+a gale, lost her boom, and blew away some canvas, while the delays to
+the _Princess May_ on that coast, where no telegraphic communication
+exists, gave rise to the impression that she was lost with all hands,
+an impression heightened by the fact that the mail steamer, which
+had encountered the same gale in the Straits of Belle Isle, had
+noticed in the sea a small boat’s flag and flagpole resembling ours.
+Unfortunately, therefore, it appeared in the English dailies that
+we were missing. Except losing a good spirit compass and loose deck
+paraphernalia, we had suffered no inconveniences. Indeed, being forced
+to shelter in so many of the small harbours along the French shore,
+gave us a valuable insight into the lives of the out-harbour people of
+Newfoundland, and also the opportunities of helping many who need it
+quite as much as do some on the Labrador.
+
+At Toulinguet, on November 3rd, we met our old friend Captain Taylor,
+of the mail steamer _Virginia Lake_, who showed us a written commission
+to search all the islands for us between certain latitudes. Thence we
+wired our whereabouts to St. Johns, but we heard subsequently that
+that kindly office had been performed for us the day previously by the
+captain of a schooner, who had passed us on his way south. The sealing
+steamer _Neptune_ gave us a line across Trinity and Conception Bays,
+and so, on the 7th, we ended our cruise for 1893 in St. Johns Harbour.
+
+We found St. Johns in the excitement of a general election, and it
+seemed as if there was little likelihood of our getting an audience
+to listen to a report of the season’s work. However, Sir William
+Whiteway kindly placed at our disposal the “Star-of-the-Sea” Hall, and
+His Excellency Sir Terence O’Brien consented to preside at an evening
+meeting. By the help of some good friends in St. Johns, some of our
+most successful photographic plates were turned into lantern slides;
+and not only was the large hall filled with friends and sympathisers,
+but one hundred and fifty dollars were realized for the funds.
+
+The _Albert_ sailed for home, having on board Dr. Curwen and the two
+nurses, on Tuesday, December 28th, and after a wonderful passage,
+entered Great Yarmouth Harbour on the thirteenth day, having
+accomplished the long run at an average pace of nine English miles or
+7·5 knots per hour.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A Team of Dogs in Harness.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+_ON DOGS AND DIFFICULTIES_
+
+
+THE Esquimaux dog, unlike his Newfoundland congener, is by no means a
+fiction, being an ubiquitous feature of Esquimaux life. Indeed, being
+musical like his master, his propensity for nocturnal chorus keeps
+him constantly in evidence; and, though he is never heard to bark, he
+manages often to leave a deep impression on an incautious stranger.
+
+On his dog’s pluck and endurance the master’s safety often depends, and
+to his marvellous instinct for finding human habitations many a man,
+hopelessly lost in a snowstorm on the icefield, owes his existence.
+Yet the Eskimo, finding it ample trouble to satisfy his own needs,
+never adds to his trouble by feeding his dogs in summer time, with the
+result that the exigencies of existence have considerably sharpened
+their faculties.
+
+To look at, they closely resemble the grey wolf of the prairie, and
+wolves mingling with the team would scarcely be recognised by an
+untrained eye. Usually the dogs wander in summer around the land-wash,
+in troops of say fifty, eating the offal below the fish stages; or when
+caplin schools are close inshore, they wade into the water and swallow
+the fish alive. Always lean and lank at this time of the year, they
+never neglect to lay up against an evil day, a fact that becomes most
+ludicrously apparent on these occasions, for they “swells wisibly.”
+
+Perhaps the most interesting sight is to see them catching flounders.
+The fish lie buried in the sand in shallow water, and as the dog’s paw
+comes down on one it struggles to get away. He then literally “puts his
+foot down,” and after it his head, which disappears under water only to
+reappear with a struggling victim. This is carried kicking to the land,
+to be devoured at leisure.
+
+The door of the chapel at the Moravian station of Hopedale was one day
+accidentally left ajar. Such a golden opportunity for a meal was not to
+be wasted, and a company of dogs soon found its way in. Some tempting
+hymn-books and litanies were shortly brought to light, redolent with
+blubber from the thumbs of the worshippers. Needless to say they were
+sacrificed at the only shrine dogs recognise.
+
+On another occasion a similar oversight let them into the
+tenderly-nurtured kitchen garden of the Brethren. The dogs rased
+the cabbages to the ground, and even carried away with them the few
+highly-prized wurzels.
+
+Modesty is a virtue of which the Eskimo dog is seldom guilty. I was
+visiting one day a bedridden patient. As the outer door opened, a
+fragrant scent as of a dinner preparing was wafted outward. Suddenly
+an avalanche swept me off my legs, and a pack of dogs, whisking the
+stew-pot off the fire, began to fight savagely over its contents,
+the more so as each, having burnt its nose in the boiling liquid,
+attributed his affliction to his neighbour. Meanwhile the house filling
+with steam and Eskimo imprecations, the latter rendered forcible by
+long harpoon handles, made me almost sorry I had called.
+
+An Eskimo’s financial condition may be gauged by the number of his
+dogs, and no one with less than six would rank as “carriage folk.”
+Eight to thirteen normally form a team, each being harnessed, by a
+single walrus hide trace of a different length, to the komatik. The
+leader will be some twenty-six yards away, which enables the team to
+clamber over or round hummocky ice. The driver on these occasions jumps
+off to help the sleigh over, while, to prevent breaking, the komatik
+is made of numbers of short wide cross boards lashed by strong tendons
+across two longitudinal pieces, no nails being used. The runners are
+shod with ribs of whale, with iron, or with mud. A slot is made in the
+snow and filled with soft mud, which at once freezes. This is next
+frozen on to the wood, and then planed or chopped smooth with an adze.
+As there are no reins, the leading dog is trained to obey the voice. At
+the shout “Auk” he goes to the right, and at “Ra” to the left, and so
+on, the others all following him. If those behind are not pulling well,
+the leader will drop back among them and bite at them. They always
+pull in the same place in a team. Thus three dogs, the whole team of
+a poor man, were lent to pull with six others. They were first placed
+in front, but would not pull, being frightened at so many dogs behind
+them. When, however, the leader was left in front and the other two put
+last of all, the whole team ran capitally. Mr. Young tells us he once
+put a young dog in front of his old leader, a magnificent old fellow on
+whom he always could rely in danger. Before he had, however, mounted
+the komatik, he found the pup scampering away loose—the leader had
+bitten through the traces. He refastened it three times, always with
+the same result. At last he gave his old leader a good whipping. The
+old dog’s spirit was completely broken by this treatment, and it so
+felt its double disgrace, it was never, to the day of its death, the
+same brave, trusty dog.
+
+The dogs greatly enjoy their work, and when harnessed in get
+tremendously excited, at times even turning on their own drivers. To
+correct them a short whip, with an enormously long lash, all of walrus
+hide, is so dexterously used that an expert driver can flick a piece
+out of any particular dog’s ear.
+
+Occasionally, a refractory dog is pulled in by its trace for
+punishment. They know the meaning of this, and anticipate the beating
+by a lively howling; so that merely to shorten a trace, may exert a
+good moral effect on a team.
+
+The “trail” is usually over the frozen sea, the land being too uneven.
+Good dogs will cover from 70 to 100 miles in a day. When starting in
+the morning the snow is covered with little icicles, formed by the
+mid-day sun melting the frozen surface. As this is apt to make the
+feet of the dogs bleed, they are shod with a bag of seal-skin, tied
+round the ankle. Three small holes are cut for the claws. A pup shod
+for the first time, holds up his paws in the air alternately; but
+once he learns to appreciate the fact that shoes save his feet from
+being cut, though he will always eat any ordinary piece of skin, such
+as on a kayak or a skin boot, he rarely eats his own shoes. They do,
+however, bite at, and eat the harness, especially of the dog in front
+of them. Mr. Young[16] tells of a big dog which, though apparently
+always hard at work, never seemed to get tired like the rest. It always
+seemed to strain at its trace, and kept looking round, apparently for
+the driver’s approval. His suspicions, however, were aroused, and one
+day, cutting loose the trace, he fastened it by a single thread to the
+komatik. Sure enough, the dog strained and worked as hard as ever, but
+it _never broke the single thread_.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Stories from Indian Wigwams_, R.T.S., by Rev. Egerton
+Young.]
+
+When the ice is good, dogs will maintain eight miles an hour, at other
+times they can only advance at a walk; while, yet again, when the ice
+is surging up and down over the sea, and wind and snow are against
+them, the weight of the sleigh will even drag them backwards. These
+dogs are exceedingly heavy, and their dragging power is enormous.
+It takes a full-grown man to hold one in leash. A team of fifteen
+dogs took six people on the sleigh “like a house on fire.” They are
+very quick to recognise the danger of being cut off from the land,
+especially when water comes over the ice, and they will then throw
+their whole strength into the work. Many times when a driver, overtaken
+by night, perhaps having missed the trail from heavy snow, and quite
+exhausted gives up the unequal struggle, the unerring instinct of the
+dogs finds full play, and they rarely fail to reach shelter of some
+kind. At night the traces are unhitched and stamped down into the snow,
+for lack of anything to tie them to. This keeps them from straying.
+Their dole of food is then given them, probably rotten caplin and
+seal blubber; after which they sleep out on the snow, even when the
+temperature is 50° below zero. Yet if other dogs are near, and they can
+get at them, most of the night will be spent fighting. It is often the
+capacity for carrying food for the dogs that limits the journey. To
+prevent this, the Moravians make depôts of dog food along the coast
+during summer.
+
+One day an old Eskimo arrived at Nachvak from Cape Chidley, a distance
+of about 100 miles. When asked where his dog food was, he answered,
+“Me go home to-morrow, then feed them,” showing the power of endurance
+of these dogs. On one occasion during a long journey a traveller (P.
+Mackenzie) shot some caribou deer, and taking all the meat he wanted,
+pursued his journey. While building his snow hut for the night, a fresh
+herd of deer passed within scent of the dogs. All, with the exception
+of their leader, a small bitch, managed to free their traces and gave
+chase. By chance they came on the dead quarry, and, falling to, at
+once gorged themselves on it. As they, returned to the camp, one large
+powerful dog was observed carrying a whole haunch in his mouth, and was
+seen to go and lay it down in reach of the still captive little leader.
+
+These dogs can be dangerous at times. Once the team of a settler living
+in Seal Islands ran away. They came back savage as wolves, and it
+transpired that they had killed and eaten a little girl, of seven years
+old, while away. Of course their owner was forced to shoot them. This
+tendency to wander was recently put to good use. A solitary settler and
+his wife were suddenly struck down with influenza. The man developed
+lung symptoms, and the woman also became too ill to feed either herself
+or him. She could hardly crawl as far as the cupboard for food; and
+they both stood in great danger of being starved, though food was in
+the house. In this extremity the woman, who could write, scribbled on a
+piece of paper, “Come over quickly,” and tied it round one of the dog’s
+necks. The dog carried it to the nearest neighbour, a distance of ten
+miles over the ice, and eventually returned with help. Possibly as the
+old couple could no longer get about to give the dogs food, that might
+account for its setting off for another house.
+
+In the water the Eskimo dog is quite at home. I have known them swim
+home from a desert island a good mile from land, and have watched them
+playfully chasing one another’s tails as they swam about in that cold
+water.
+
+Fighting, however, is their chief diversion. Each team always has its
+king, who maintains his position solely by his might. I have watched
+from a boat a pack banished to an island in summer to keep them out of
+mischief. As we rowed round, a fine young dog, with the only female
+close alongside, moved by curiosity followed us out to the end of every
+little promontory, but the rest all maintained a respectful distance
+behind. Next week, when we passed again, we found he had been deposed,
+and then woe betide him for some time. The entire pack seem to combine
+to pay off their pent-up grudges against him, and at times he is so
+harried he takes to the water. I have watched a late leader standing up
+to his shoulders in water eyeing his tormentors to see if he could
+escape unobserved; but every attempt he made to come ashore a combined
+rush was made, and he was forced to retire again.
+
+[Illustration: Eskimo Family.]
+
+At night on travel a snow hut is built. Half an hour is long enough for
+this. The snow is cut in blocks—nowadays usually with an old cavalry
+sabre—from the inside of the circle chosen for the house. Thus the hut
+goes down and up at the same time. A hole is left at the top for the
+air, while a block is cut to fit into the door from the outside, after
+all are in. If a tent is carried, it is of the usual reindeer skins,
+sewn together with tendons. The sleeping bag is made of seal-skin with
+the hair outside, and lined with reindeer skin with the hair inside.
+Almost any cold can be borne in it; and if your family are travelling
+with you, and share your bag, they are then said to be positively warm.
+The skin boots always worn are so exquisitely sewn, that, like the
+kayaks, they are quite watertight.
+
+However, there is no water in Labrador in winter, for even the
+perspiration from the men’s bodies, if they do violent work, freezes
+inside the clothing; and, as in cases of Arctic explorers, it may
+become necessary to take off one’s clothes at night to hammer out the
+ice from the inside.
+
+To do this sewing it is necessary to chew the edges of the skins soft.
+One woman said to me, “Me no good now,” showing me that her teeth were
+all too far worn down to be of any use in boot-making. The Eskimo’s
+teeth meet one another, and do not overhang like Europeans’. Soft
+bread gets so hard frozen that biscuits have to be carried, which,
+with lumps of meat, are stowed away under their clothes next the skin,
+in order to keep it soft. Spirits even will freeze in the bottle; but
+neither whites nor Eskimo carry alcohol, or dare resort to it in cold
+weather, if they had it. These people form an excellent apology for
+total abstinence, as do the Laps, who drink only coffee. In England and
+the United States cold weather is used as an apology for whisky. Drink
+soon destroys the Eskimo. Yet they, like white men, willingly become
+its slaves. They have even buried in their oil casks, water, molasses,
+and old mouldy biscuits, in order to get fermented liquor, when once
+habituated to it.
+
+The Moravians have, however, kept the traffic in check, partly by not
+teaching the Eskimo English, and partly by Christian teaching. One
+dear old fellow—named Zacharias—had in his early days been expelled
+by the Eskimo from Okkak for drunkenness and being a nuisance to the
+community. Becoming a Christian under the preaching at Hopedale, he was
+now seeking to get back to Okkak to show them what the grace of God can
+do in the dark heart of a drunken Eskimo. Very practical are some of
+these Eskimo Christians. One Nathaniel last winter, while going to his
+sealing ground, was carried off to sea by the ice drifting off. When
+eventually he managed to escape, he told the missionaries: “I felt
+like Peter. I could not pray, though I thought I must die. I had not
+lived a good life.” On another occasion a woman actually went and gave
+back all the property she had won from another by gambling, when told
+it was displeasing to God.
+
+The following translation of letters from some much respected leaders
+among them, gives an insight into their feelings and ideas. One wrote
+to us as follows: “In spirit I am among you, my fellow-servants. Only a
+little I want to say to you. Because the Lord, He helps us, you as well
+as us—we in Labrador. In one faith and love in that which Jesus has
+wrought for us, that we can walk through Him that strengthens us. Once
+more we have reason to be thankful, because the physician came; we are
+often reminded that our souls also must have medicine, _i.e._ the Word
+of God. I salute you all. The Lord may help every one of us. You as
+well as me. Zacharias. The one that is in Hopedale.”
+
+Another wrote, “My wife and I and all the Eskimo wish very sincerely to
+thank all the good believers on the other side of the sea, who in their
+love have thought of us, and sent a doctor to help and assist us in
+our illness. We do not understand the language of those you have sent
+here, yet we rejoice that they are preaching the Word of God faithfully
+to the many fishermen who work along the Labrador. My prayer and wish
+are that the Lord will protect them on their journey, and bless you
+and them in the work. My wife and I greet all those who love the Lord
+Jesus Christ.”
+
+  “DANIEL AND JOSEPHINA.”
+
+When the missionaries desire to punish an Eskimo, it is generally done
+by (1) refusing to allow him personally in the store; (2) ejecting him
+from the choir or band; (3) cutting him off from communion. An Eskimo,
+never having severer punishment, feels each of these very acutely.
+
+Cartwright punished them much more summarily. In his dry way, he
+remarks: “July 1. Having reproved an Eskimo in a very angry tone for
+stealing a skein of thread, I gave him a few strokes with a stick. He
+instantly made resistance; when catching him in my arms, I gave him
+a cross buttock (a method of throwing unknown to them), and pitched
+him with great force head first out of my tent. The rest applauded my
+action as just, and had a high opinion of my lenity.”
+
+Conveying Bible ideas to the Eskimo has not been easy. It must be
+remembered they have never seen sheep or lambs, horse or mule, fruit
+tree or corn, sowing or harvest. Nor have they much idea of kindness to
+animals at all. Every animal but a dog is to be killed, and even their
+dogs are to be kept at a considerable distance. But they are themselves
+very grateful for kindness, as the above extracts show.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+_ON SEALS AND SEALERS_
+
+
+[Illustration: The S.S. _Sir Donald_.]
+
+The hair seal, locally “swile,” affords to the Newfoundland fisherman
+almost the only means of work in winter which will help him to eke out
+the meagre living provided by his Labrador voyages. True, there is a
+home frozen-herring trade, but it is limited to the west coast; and
+also the new railway employs a certain number of men as long as the
+inclemencies of winter allow work to proceed. But it is to the spring
+sealing, or “going to the ice,” as they call it, that most look for
+the extra few dollars to help fill the children’s mouths. Not long ago
+every one could go to the ice, for then only sailing-boats went, and
+the wealth reaped from the voyages passed mostly into the fishermen’s
+pockets. Now all is revolutionized, and the sealing is in the hands
+of half-a-dozen firms, that send out big steamers, carrying crews
+numbering as many as three hundred men. Moreover, the value of seal-oil
+has greatly decreased, and the expenses of the steamers eat up much of
+the profit. There are not a few whom one hears growling, “Steam has
+ruined Newfoundland.”
+
+The hair seal, “Phoca Greenlandica,” must not be confounded with the
+fur seal of the Pacific, for though the former is found in the Pacific,
+the latter is never found in the North Atlantic. The fur seal is as a
+rule larger, has much longer hands and feet in proportion to his body,
+and also a much longer neck. He is apparently a much more powerful
+swimmer. There are, however, several kinds of hair seal. The largest
+is the hood seal. A truly magnificent animal, and one that shows
+much courage in defending himself against his enemies. Sitting up on
+his tail and hind legs, he defends himself with teeth and flippers,
+protecting his head from injury by blowing out a bladder-shaped and
+shot-proof excrescence on it. The usual method to kill a seal is to
+hit it upon the nose with a club, called a seal-bat, but when once
+fairly roused the bull hood seal is invulnerable there. An old sealer
+described to me a battle between one of these fellows and a polar
+bear, in which he told us the seal only yielded to be eaten after a
+prolonged and bloody struggle. It takes two men at least to kill one,
+for one man has to divert the animal’s attention by striking its tail,
+while the other endeavours to hit it under the jaw as it turns round.
+
+The most important hair seal, however, is the harp. It is the variety
+which resort to the ice to breed in such countless thousands, and which
+the sealing vessels go out in pursuit of. The process of breeding
+is most interesting. The following account was given me by Captain
+Blandford, of Newfoundland, perhaps the most successful of all the bold
+sealing captains:—
+
+“Soon after we got jammed in the ice there appeared from the water
+four or five old seals, which scrambled up on to its surface. Within
+five minutes there were 500 seals on it, and in half an hour 200,000
+as nearly as we could guess. Scarcely had they come to rest on the ice
+when they commenced throwing their young, and at once, after whelping,
+those close to us, being somewhat frightened by the ship, jumped back
+into the sea, leaving the little seals whimpering exactly like babies.”
+
+The young are born about the 1st of March, and are very small, fat, and
+snowy white, remaining so up till the 20th to 25th, _i.e._ about three
+weeks, between which date and the 1st of April they are big enough to
+take to the water. During this period they are known as “whitecoats.”
+They grow so rapidly that you can almost see them growing, though on
+the above occasion those close to the ship did not grow nearly as
+rapidly as those farther away, for the dams were shy about coming to
+give them suck.
+
+The “whitecoats” are not large enough to kill until they are fourteen
+days’ old, so that on this occasion the crew had to wait. Now, however,
+by law no sailing vessel may leave for the ice until the 8th of March,
+and no steamer till the 12th, under a penalty of $2,000, which gives
+the seals a chance to get sizeable; nor is a vessel now allowed to make
+a second voyage the same year, if she has once come back loaded. This
+prevents the extermination of the mother seals. Great excitement always
+exists when the sealers are about to start; sometimes it is necessary
+to cut their way out of the harbour, in which they have been imprisoned
+during the winter months, with dynamite, saws, and crowbars, the way
+being cleared beforehand, that not an hour may be lost after the clocks
+announce midnight of the 11th. This year, 1894, while blasting a way
+out of the ice in Greenspond Harbour, the S.S. _Walrus_ was severely
+damaged by the explosion of the dynamite, which shattered her bows, and
+killed some of her men. The ice was ten feet thick.
+
+The vessels may start from any part of the island, north or south, but
+no one place is always best, the position of the seals varying every
+season. There is much competition to get a place among the crews, and
+the men are carefully selected for their pluck, energy, experience, and
+physical capacities. These are queer-looking craft to the unaccustomed
+eye these steam sealers of about 300 to 400 tons burden, with their
+outside thick sheathing of hard wood, called “ice chocks,” and their
+huge double stems, filled between with from nine to twelve feet of
+solid oak, built for charging through floe ice. For when shut in the
+steamer will back far enough to gain good impetus, and then dash full
+at the weakest part of the floe. Usually the sloping forepost allows
+the vessel to rise up on to the ice, the great weight then breaking
+down into clear water. Anything loose on deck is of course upset, as
+are any of the crew who happen not to be holding some support. All
+are rigged with three masts, and can sail as well as steam; and the
+screw being fixed in a slot can easily be pulled up out of the water
+at these times. Each masthead is fitted with a barrel or crow’s nest,
+from which a careful look-out for seals is constantly maintained. When
+once discovered, the next thing is to keep them to yourself, and, if
+possible, mislead any other vessels near, who might be apt to join in
+and so lessen your prize. A captain, well known for his success, was
+lately dogged in this way by a fresh hand. To mislead his rival the
+captain steamed into one of the large bays, where, it so happened, he
+got frozen in while the raw hand, turning out, caught a full voyage.
+
+Once alongside the floe, the men jump off on to the ice, and at once
+the work begins. Sometimes they work in pairs, one man shooting the
+seals, and his chum, who is called “the dog,” following up, cutting
+off the tail from the dead seal to “mark it,” and then gathering them
+in heaps, and putting up a pole with a flag or a piece of liver as a
+claim. These are then said to be “panned.” This is technically called
+“swatching.” When shooting, 1,400 seals in a day is good work for a
+crew, though they have killed 3,000; but when it is only necessary to
+“club” them with the seal-bat, 25,000 have been killed in a day, and
+47,000 in two days. Sculping (scalping?) is the next process—that is
+taking off the skin and fat. This scarcely takes a minute. The seal is
+thrown on its back, ripped up from chin to tail, and the fat and skin,
+known as the “pelt,” are torn off. The body is no use, and is left on
+the ice, except that occasionally the hearts are cut out and strung on
+the hunter’s belts, as a reserve of food in case of necessity.
+
+The mother seals show great sagacity in finding the particular hole,
+through which she comes and goes for food, among so many thousand
+others, and at once she finds her own little white pup. They will
+evince much self-sacrifice in trying to rescue their offspring from
+danger, at times carrying them in their fore flippers to escape being
+nipped by ice, or drawing them into the water to teach them to swim.
+Alas, after a sealer’s visit she will only find a quivering red corpse
+when she returns. Let us hope she does not recognise it.
+
+When another crew is also at work on the same patch of seals the
+greatest expedition is naturally used, and under these circumstances
+the seals will often only be “batted” and stunned, not stabbed to the
+heart as well, before being skinned. It is this that has given rise to
+the charges of cruelty, for the naked body has been seen to move around
+after the operation. Otherwise there is no more cruelty in killing
+seals than in killing cattle or poultry, and any man who is humane in
+one will naturally be humane in the other; nor do I think you will find
+anywhere a more humane set of men than you will among Newfoundland
+fishermen.
+
+Captain X. was once just forcing his way through ice towards a pack of
+seals when he sighted a rival vessel coming up under his lee. Backing
+out, he at once altered his course away from the seals to mislead the
+other, but was too late to prevent them sighting his seals. The second
+vessel, being much faster, now ran in between my friend and the ice,
+and passing him on the starboard side gave the order “hard a starboard”
+to force him out from his own cutting. Incensed at this, Captain X.
+from the barrel shouted “hard a port,” and went straight for his
+rival’s stem. Fortunately an intervening pan of ice prevented a fatal
+accident, but he ran his bowsprit well over the other’s counter. All
+hands from the foremost vessel were overboard and hard at work killing
+and panning seals before Captain X. could land his men; so he shouted,
+as his final order, “Hand aboard the dead seals; never mind killing
+live ones,” and then, calmly descending, went and had refreshments with
+the other captain in the other vessel’s cabin, while the crews were
+left to fight it out as best they could. They are a brave, generous,
+and skilful set of men, these sealing captains, and reck little of
+danger or hardship.
+
+Work proceeds during the night by torchlight, and the scattered fires,
+with their ruddy glow on the heaps of dead seals and uncouth-looking
+figures at work, must present indeed a weird sight. Now the pelts
+have to be brought back to the ship; and in this work the physical
+capacities of each hunter are tried to the utmost. Six pelts is a full
+“tow” for one man. Often when the ice is hummocky, or perhaps broken up
+into pieces, called “slob” ice, and it is necessary to jump from pan to
+pan, or again when the distance from the ship is long, and the approach
+of night or the fog render travelling almost impossible, are these men
+tempted to abandon the hardly-won pelts, and get home themselves to the
+ship and safety.
+
+Sometimes one hunter will be long adrift from the steamer, and all the
+rest being back, and all the seals in that patch boarded, the captain
+is anxious to get off—how anxious, if the patch was a small one and
+other seals are near, perhaps only a sealing captain knows,—for all
+ships must be home by April 21st, full or empty. Yet though so much
+depends on it a stray hunter has never yet been abandoned. It costs a
+large sum to send these vessels to the ice, and a “clean ship” means a
+big loss to the merchant, and no money for the men.
+
+[Illustration: Eskimo on an Island near Okkak.]
+
+Sharks, even in these latitudes, are not slow to gather at the smell
+of slaughter, and can be caught with boathooks between the pans. It is
+not a rare thing for men to slip off the pans into the water, and it
+requires no little skill to get out again without help; for the water,
+naturally, is very cold, and one is apt again and again to slip off
+back into the water while trying to climb on to the ice. Acts of great
+heroism are performed sometimes in rescuing a man thus endangered;
+in one case, the pans being very small, it was not possible to stand
+on one in order to pull the man out. The rescuer, therefore, quickly
+throwing off his outer garments, came jumping from piece to piece,
+making a grab at the struggling man as he passed, trying to push him on
+far enough for him to catch hold. The second run he succeeded, but, of
+course, himself ran great peril in the attempt. The vessels eventually,
+loaded to the gunwales if they have been fortunate, return to St.
+Johns, every hole and corner being used for stowing the pelts, so that
+at times the crew will have to sleep wherever they can find a dry spot,
+even on deck or in the boats.
+
+Once in harbour, the fat is separated and put into enormous vats, the
+oil being squeezed out from the blubber by their own weight, and being
+eventually drawn off, clarified, and sold. Now, however, the blubber
+is usually “rendered” by means of a steam mincer. The skins are salted
+without being stretched, and are then exported “green,” for making
+into leather for boot tops, gloves, etc. When the white coat is a year
+old, he is dark in colour on the back, lighter on the belly, and is
+known as a “bedlamer harp.” When he is three years old, a large black
+saddle-shaped mark begins to appear over his back, and he is called a
+full “bedlamer.” When he is four years old, the saddle is fully and
+clearly marked, and the seal is then known as the “old harp.”
+
+Seals, as is well known to those who visit Zoological Gardens, are very
+easily tamed, and display almost the sagacity of dogs. Tales are told
+of seals which have become so thoroughly tame that they will come and
+lie before the fire, making friends with the dog and cat; while one,
+when it had been found too expensive to keep, and had been taken out to
+sea and dropped overboard, followed the boat ashore again and again,
+even getting in at the window when the door had been shut against it.
+The seal is used by the Eskimo for nearly everything. The stretched
+coat of the bowel serves instead of glass. Their boats are entirely
+of skin. Their clothing almost all skin. Their winter food almost all
+seal meat and blubber. Dog food, dog harness, dog whips, etc., are all
+of seal, or of walrus hide. Moreover, to the settlers, their skins for
+boots and their fat for oil are invaluable.
+
+In Labrador the “old harps” are caught either in the fall or spring,
+when the sea is first freezing over or the ice first breaking up, and
+always along shore, in one of the following ways. Strong twine nets,
+with very large meshes, are anchored out on the bottom in about twenty
+to thirty fathoms of water, off prominent headlands, or in the mouths
+of bays and inlets known to be frequented by seals. These are buoyed
+on the surface, and in these the seals mesh and drown themselves. This
+industry is attended with much danger and hardship, for it involves
+rowing out in all weathers in small boats to clear the nets. Sometimes
+the buoys are under the ice, and the process known as “creeping” has to
+be undertaken to find the nets at all, for it will not do to lose these
+most valuable possessions.
+
+If the nets are not recovered by New Year’s Day, they are lost; yet
+occasionally they may be recovered immediately the ice goes in April,
+when, the men tell me, both nets and seals in them are good; but if
+much time elapses after the floe drifts off, both rot rapidly and are
+destroyed by animalculæ.
+
+Often hours must be spent “creeping,” and then, perhaps, only some
+one else’s nets are taken, while all the while each must be carefully
+watching the other to see he is not getting frostbitten. The nose,
+ears, or chin will become frozen unknown to the owner and another will
+cry out “your ears are dead,” the parts having turned snowy white.
+Then begins the painful and tedious process of rubbing the part with
+snow—woe betide the sufferer who goes in a heated room, or uses hot
+water; for a certainty he will lose his ears or his nose—then the
+creeping must be again proceeded with; or when the nets are partly
+hauled bad weather will overtake them, perhaps a sudden squall from
+the high land sweeps down on the little open boat, and the tragedy of
+“the three fishers” is apt to be enacted over again. In one case, a man
+described to me how, when out with his brother and another man, while
+in the act of hauling into the boat a square flipper seal of larger
+size than usual, the little craft capsized, and his brother, getting
+cramp from cold, slipped off the bottom of the boat to which all three
+were clinging. Fortunately, the other two managed, it being a calm day,
+to hold on till a rescue was effected. It is cold work at best, and,
+as one stalwart fellow said, “jest a bit hard, that when a man comes
+home real hungry it should take him half an hour to get the ice off his
+face before he can find his mouth.” “Yes,” chimed in another, “I lost
+two toes and this ear,” showing that he had been cropped as if at the
+pillory. I have myself seen the frozen breath hanging from men’s beards
+and moustaches till, from nose to chest, it was one huge white mass.
+
+The easier way of catching the “old harps” is with a submerged room
+of net, resembling the cod-trap, with the difference that the wall
+which is on the side the seals enter from is lowered to the bottom. A
+watch is kept from the shore, and as soon as the seals enter the room
+a rope attached to this wall is wound up on a capstan on the land, and
+the seals are thus imprisoned. They are now given time to entangle
+themselves in the net, and so get drowned, or the boat rows off and
+the hunter shoots the seal before taking it out of the water; for the
+seals would bite badly if given the chance. The net is thirty to forty
+fathoms deep, and is set in about six to ten fathoms of water.
+
+The last variety of hair seal is known as the “bay seal.” It frequents
+the shores, bays, and mouths of fresh-water rivers, up which it breeds,
+all the summer, and is caught either in mesh nets, or shot from a boat
+as it puts up its head to breathe. This feat is rendered more easy by
+the natural curiosity of the seal. As soon as it spies the boat it
+raises its head and shoulders out of water to get a good view of the
+stranger. If you now remain quite still, and especially if you can
+imitate the “Hough, hough” of the animal, it will dive down and in a
+minute come up nearer the boat. I have been almost ashamed to shoot as
+it opened its large, human eyes, so full of inquisitiveness. “Bang!”
+If you are a good shot, your seal will be dead, a bullet through his
+brain, and you must at once row and pick him up while his few kicks
+keep him afloat. I remember seeing one sink after being shot, as we
+rowed off to the _Princess May_ from the shore one day. We stopped
+over the spot, and peering down into the crystal water, could see him
+ten fathoms down. Suddenly, one last kick—only it seemed a slight
+movement—and the carcase rose to the surface for the last time. Up,
+up! We watched it gyrating round and round, and as it reached the
+surface, grabbed hold of one flipper and slung it into the boat. We
+had one or two good meals off that fellow, for we hung him up from our
+forestay, and the frosty air kept him sweet and fresh as long as we
+needed him. Had he not arisen we should have got him up by means of our
+“jiggers,” _i.e._, our heavy leaded hooks.
+
+The Eskimo harpoon their seals from the kayak, occasionally shooting
+it first; but shooting accurately from a kayak is no easy matter. The
+harpoon is made of light wood, about three feet in length. On the end
+of this is fixed a whole walrus tusk, to carry the loose barbed iron
+top, and also to weight it and carry it truly home. As soon as the seal
+is struck it dives, taking the harpoon with it, but as the harpoon
+is attached by about twenty fathoms of walrus hide to an inflated
+air-tight seal-skin, the hunter spies it, as soon as it comes up,
+even if it ever succeeds in carrying the buoy down. A few strokes of
+the paddle brings the kayak once more alongside, and the seal is soon
+put _hors de combat_ with a lance, lashed on the back of the little
+boat, and the hunter starts for home, or it is towed home alongside
+the kayak. When one year old the bay seal is called a “jar seal,” and
+its skin is poor; in the second year it is a “doter,” and becoming
+speckled, in the third year, it is a “ranger,” and is then very
+beautiful, being checkered silver and black all over.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Eskimo in Reindeer Tent, Okkak.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+_ON THE ESQUIMAUX OR ESKIMO_
+
+
+It was a still moonlight night, and the _Albert_ lay at anchor in one
+of those numberless creeks in which the venturous fishermen hide away
+their schooners, while in their small boats they are snatching from the
+very edges of the reefs their precious fares of fish.
+
+We were below decks, dressing the wounds of a fisherman in the
+_Albert’s_ little cabin, the only sounds being the moan of my patient
+or the lapping of the water against the ship’s side, when the silence
+was suddenly broken by the sound as of many voices singing. The air was
+very familiar:—
+
+    “There’s a land that is fairer than day,
+      And by faith we can see it afar,
+    For our Father dwells over the way
+      To prepare us a dwelling-place there.”
+
+Mounting the gangway, I found the deck crowded by a number of the
+quaintest little figures. They were dressed in skins, with snow-white
+jumpers topped by long pointed cowls standing high up over their heads.
+Some sat cross-legged on the bulwarks or hatches, while others, in
+their seal-skin boots, were gliding noiselessly about in the moonlight,
+till imagination conjured up “the merry elves” of childhood. The early
+Norsemen called them skrellings or weaklings. They call themselves
+Innuits, “the people,” because they say God went on creating till they
+appeared, then He was satisfied, and created no more. Eskimo = raw meat
+eater, and is a term of opprobrium conferred on them by the Indians.
+
+Soon all were down in our main hold, chattering, laughing, and pleased
+as children, at the _Albert’s_ fittings and at our attempts to
+understand their remarks. The one that acted as leader spoke a little
+broken English, and from him we learned that they had come from a group
+of islands lying outside us with some boat-loads of dry fish for a
+planter; that they had been puzzled by our strange rig, and so had come
+aboard to see us.
+
+When their leader had explained to them that we were a “Gospel ship,”
+and had things to heal the sick, their merry, round, flat faces grew
+sunnier than ever. All heads were uncovered at once, displaying mops
+of long straight black hair, cut fringe-like level with the eyebrows.
+Then they all broke out singing again, squatting all round the hold
+on their haunches or on the floor, while, to our surprise, one seated
+himself at the harmonium and played it excellently, others performing
+on two concertinas and two cornets. They sang in parts in their own
+language, but hymn tunes well known to us, so our crew all joined in,
+and kept it up till the watch called “All hands off board.” Since
+then we have seen and learnt much of this simple people; “Uskies” the
+fishermen call them, and we all like them greatly.
+
+Not many heathen Eskimo remain in Labrador, yet between Ungava
+and Cape Chidley some are still to be found. They recognise a god
+(Tongarsuk), a good spirit, and also lesser spirits (Tongaks), whom
+he sends to tell the priests (angekoks) how to heal diseases, and
+how to tell the weather. The Devil is a vague kind of female spirit,
+apparently unnamed. These angekoks are really delphic oracles, who
+make supposititious journeys to the bowels of the earth to consult
+Tongarsuk. The journey must be in winter, in the dark at night time,
+and the angekok remains alone in his hut with his head tied between his
+legs, and his arms behind his back, while his soul is off to heaven or
+hell. To become an angekok poglit, _i.e._ fat priest or chief priest,
+his wandering spirit must be dragged by one toe to the sea by a white
+bear, and there swallowed by a sea lion and the same white bear. Then
+it must be spued up and return to his body, which is shut up in a dark
+house. A drum and other noises are kept up during the ceremony.[17]
+
+They have a vague tradition of a flood, saying that the world upset
+once, and all but one man were drowned. They prove this by the fact of
+shells being found high above the sea, and even the remains of a whale
+on a high mountain. They believe in a future life and a happier one
+than this, where there is perpetual summer, and they locate it at the
+bottom of the sea, whence they get their richest possessions, or in the
+bowels of the earth. Reindeer are there quite common, and their beloved
+seals are ever ready, swimming in a large boiling kettle.[17]
+
+[Footnote 17: _The Eskimo_, by Dr. F. Nansen.]
+
+Nansen tells us they thought that all inanimate objects had spirits,
+and that this is the reason that they buried with the warrior his boat
+and weapons, and often figures like dolls, possibly to represent his
+wives. I found several of these old graves, and two I examined. One,
+evidently very ancient, was perched on a high central promontory,
+overlooking the entrances to two bays; perhaps in order that as the
+harp seals or wild birds passed, the warrior might, even in death,
+look down upon those who of yore so oft paid tribute to his skill. The
+body in every grave is simply laid on the surface on its back, in its
+clothes—in one grave a female skeleton lay alongside a male one. Over
+it is built a rude structure roofed with large flat stones, so that
+the view should be unobstructed. In a small cache alongside the above
+grave were two wooden figures of females, an ivory harpoon head and the
+remains of the shaft, the skin-cleaning instruments, and the remains of
+a stone lamp.
+
+In another, further south, I found an iron sword about three feet long,
+used for cutting snow blocks for snow houses, a dagger with a curved
+blade, a clasp knife, an old pot of iron, a nail or needle case, a lead
+buckle silvered over, a whetstone, and a few other simple household
+implements, while in each case the remains of the kayak or canoe, the
+paddle and the harpoon were lying near.
+
+The skipper of a Newfoundland vessel told me how one of his men took
+some frankincense from one of these graves. That night the crew were
+startled by one of the hands shouting out, “There is a man in the
+cabin!” though it was all dark at the time. A lamp was lit, and the
+same man shouted, “There he goes, up the hatchway!” The others chaffed
+him and blew out the light. Very soon shouts were again heard, “There
+he is, an Eskimo, searching in Tom’s bunk.” After that the lamp was
+kept lighted, and next day the grave was restored.
+
+The early Moravian missionaries found it very difficult to convey
+to the Eskimo the Bible teachings of our Saviour’s love and of God
+as our Father. They had no word for love; neither sheep nor lambs,
+seed-time nor harvest, silver nor gold were familiar to them, and all
+the oriental similes of the sacred book were unintelligible. Yet the
+missionaries’ Christ-like lives during 130 years have accomplished what
+their words could not express.
+
+In A.D. 1000 the Eskimo extended as far south as Newfoundland. In 1790
+a tribe five hundred strong dwelt in the Straits of Belle Isle. Now
+only a few dwell south of Hopedale, three hundred miles north of the
+same straits, and only some two to three thousand north of that place.
+Contact with white men has killed them off, at times by small-pox or
+diphtheria, but usually by tubercular consumption. The two racial tides
+now meet at Hopedale, and here the Eskimo appear least healthy.
+
+The nomad life in skin tents has been abandoned for wooden and mud
+huts. The seal-skin clothes have largely given way to inferior cotton
+and European goods. The “blubber” food is largely replaced by “flour
+and molasses.” The art of kayaking is nearly lost, and the Eskimo
+have become less and less reliant on their own powers of procuring a
+livelihood, while guns and powder have largely diminished the supply
+of game. This has well been exemplified around the mission station
+of Zoar. The Eskimo here had contracted a habit of taking out their
+supplies from the Moravians, but secretly traded their fish and fur
+with the nearest Hudson Bay station at Davis Inlet. Thus they ran up
+large debts, which eventually the Brethren refused to increase. Soon
+after, while two missionaries were in the store, some bullets were
+fired right through the wooden walls. Fortunately no one was hurt. But
+bad feelings had been roused, and at last it was found necessary to
+close these stores altogether, with the result that the Eskimo have
+been _obliged to leave_, and stay where they could buy provisions at
+hand; and now the Eskimo are all gone, and the whole station is closed
+for good. But this is only what civilization has done for aboriginal
+races all the world over.
+
+Thank God that in this case the Gospel both preceded and accompanied
+commerce. To this alone I attribute the fact that after over 130
+years any of the Eskimo do now remain. The Gospel has been received.
+Many have passed from darkness to light, and so are in a position to
+correspond to or resist the new environment of white men’s customs
+and white men’s whisky. True the Eskimo in Labrador are being slowly
+driven to a last stand. Thank God that stand is at Ramah, Hebron,
+Okkak, Hopedale and Nain, around the devoted Christian missionaries of
+the Moravian brethren, who for Christ’s sake spend their lives among
+the hardships of this bleak and barren coast; and while Beothicks and
+Red Indians have fallen victims to the God of mammon, remnants of this
+gentle and harmless race still persist. Take away these Moravians from
+Labrador, and the days of the Eskimo would soon be numbered.
+
+[Illustration: Taken from an Eskimo Grave at Long Island.]
+
+In the eleventh century Thorfinn Karlsefne describes the Skraellings
+as “black and ill-favoured, with coarse hair on their heads, and large
+eyes, with broad cheeks.” Cartwright, writing in 1790, says they were
+quarrelsome among one another, and occasionally thievish. Cranz, in
+1760, says they were degraded, immoral, and brutish in their heathen
+state. Nansen thinks they led an ideal socialistic life, but founded, I
+think, rather on a basis of inevitable union against starvation in bad
+times than on a basis of Divine and brotherly love. They appear ever to
+have been simple and confiding. Karlsefne says they came to visit his
+men in Vinland and began to barter.
+
+“These people would rather have red cloth than anything else; for this
+they gave skins and real furs. For an entire fur-skin the Skraellings
+took a piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it round their heads.
+Thus went on traffic for a time, then the cloth began to fall short
+among Karlsefne and his people, and they cut it asunder into small
+pieces, which were not wider than the breadth of a finger, and still
+the Skraellings gave just as much as before, and more.”
+
+According to our code they are very immoral, yet seeing the conduct of
+white men to one another and to themselves they always say of a good
+man, “He is like an Innuit” (Eskimo). They themselves have no words for
+cursing, and Nansen says also no words of opprobrium, such as liar,
+scoundrel, or rowdy. Recently one in the far north of Labrador, who
+already had seven wives, stole his son-in-law’s wife also—that is
+his own daughter. The younger man bided his time, and then shot the
+older one off his guard. Some twenty years ago a number came south to
+the most northern Moravian station. One had cut on his gun-stock many
+notches. On being asked what these meant, he explained they indicated
+so many men craftily shot. On being told it was wrong, he promised not
+to do it again. Polygamy is now done away with, and it is only in their
+fishing-tents that different families sleep together. In some tents I
+visited the only separations were marks made on the ground.
+
+Yet they have learnt to repent of wrong-doing, and all their outbreaks
+have ended in asking for forgiveness. They confess even murder to
+the missionaries. I have met four who have done so. In all spiritual
+matters they implicitly accept the Brethren’s teaching; nor do they
+ever question the authority of the Bible; _e.g._, one man had a very
+refractory boy, who was always annoying his teacher, and wilfully
+disturbing the whole school. His father refused to punish him, for he
+said he thought that must be wrong for a Christian. Nor would he alter
+his decision till Solomon’s maxim on that point was shown him in black
+and white. He then at once adopted Solomon’s view of the matter, and
+“appealed to his son’s feelings” with a piece of walrus hide.
+
+Other enemies, besides civilization, have helped to deplete the Eskimo
+race. The early Vikings harried them on their visits to the coast.
+Thorfinn Karlsefne mentions finding five Skraellings sleeping under
+a boat. He adds, his men killed them; and similar incidents occurred
+to others of these rovers. The Indians of the interior have always
+been hostile to them, and in their battles with these the Eskimo have
+generally come off second best.
+
+We were shown the spot where tradition has it the Eskimo and
+Montaignais Indians fought their last fight for mastery. A story to
+which the finding of many stone arrow heads and knives lends some
+colour. Off the mouth of a long river lies a large island, with a
+smooth central plain, rising at each end to high broken rocks. On the
+outer end clustered the humble huts of the Eskimos, with their fishing
+gear lying around. One night, under cover of darkness, the Mountaineers
+crept stealthily down the river in their large, double-ended, birch
+war-canoes, and effected a landing, dragging the canoes up after them,
+and then hiding themselves among the rocks. Next day, however, the
+wary little Eskimo discovered their arrival, and pluckily determined
+to attack them at once. It is easy to picture the wild scene that
+followed. No doubt the little warriors fought desperately; but,
+against their taller and more powerful adversaries, were at a great
+disadvantage in a hand to hand conflict. Many having fallen in the
+open, the remnant sought cover among the rocks at the outer end of
+the island, only to be dislodged and driven back towards the sea.
+Here, no doubt, the squaws—who still dress like men and partake in
+all the expeditions—helped them to make one last stand for home and
+children. Then came the skurry to the beach. Behind are the ruthless,
+bloodthirsty “braves,” in front the mighty ocean. Picture the tiny
+skin-boats, manned by the few survivors, darting out through Atlantic
+surf, with probably wife and child hurriedly lashed on the back, as
+they do sometimes at the present day. Think of the tragedies enacted,
+as perhaps some obstacle prevented the kayaks getting away—some
+refractory child, some accident to the frail craft at the last moment.
+With fiendish yells the Indians are hurrying over the beach towards
+them, more horrible from their weird war-paint. History only says the
+settlement was exterminated.
+
+Starvation also has lessened their numbers. Near Sir Leopold
+McClintock’s winter quarters—where the darkness lasted for three
+months—were camped some Eskimo. These people had neither fires nor
+lights. Living in snow huts, into which they crawled on their bellies
+through long snow tunnels, they lay huddled on one another for the sake
+of the warmth. Their clothes were of duck-skins and other feathers
+inside, and seal-skin outside. No wood existed anywhere near. Their
+food consisted of raw seal meat, buried deep outside. Whenever hungry,
+they would crawl out, eat about four pounds of raw meat, and crawl back
+and sleep again as long as possible—almost hibernating like the black
+bear. What would happen when the polar bear got at their meat supplies,
+as he was only too likely to do?
+
+Only this year (1894) the crew of the whaler _Balaena_ brought to
+Dundee the horrible details of what might well be expected. The
+_Balaena’s_ crew discovered on the shore, in a place far removed
+from all animal life, the dead bodies of three Eskimos, and a number
+of bleached human bones. These three—two men and one woman—were
+evidently the last survivors of a larger party. Near to the bodies
+three human heads were noticed—in each case the throat had been cut
+and savagely hacked with a knife, while the brains had been extracted
+through a hole in the skull. A smashed rifle and a bow and arrows were
+lying near, and all the evidences of a severe struggle between the last
+two male survivors. A blood-stained knife was taken from the woman’s
+hand. It is probable the party had been waiting here (Elwin Bay) for
+the arrival of the whalers in 1893. Alas! ice had prevented their
+coming, and at last, among the patiently-expectant little people, an
+awful tragedy had been enacted.
+
+Less dramatic incidents also occur in Eskimo life. Thus, in one case
+recently, an old tyrant had appropriated the fine new kayak of a poorer
+man; and soon after this poor fellow was drowned while shooting deer
+out of his old canoe, of which the skin covering was rotten. His son,
+a young fellow under twenty, remained quiet a long time. One day,
+however, he was taken out hunting by the old man. Whilst crossing
+a wide river on the ice, the son dropped behind a step and blew the
+other’s brains out.
+
+On one or two occasions they have combined to attack the Moravian
+Brethren. Thus in Hebron, on one occasion, they shut the missionaries
+up in their house, not allowing them even to go and get water,
+demanding that all the goods in the store should be handed over to
+them. No resistance was made, except that the store was kept locked.
+At the end of three days, which the Brethren had spent in prayer,
+conviction seized the Eskimo, and they came and said they were very
+sorry.
+
+No stretch of imagination could call them an emotional people; some
+are almost fatalists, and all are easily satisfied and careless of
+the morrow. One day an Eskimo guide accompanied me out fishing. It
+so happened that rain fell in great quantities, and as he had left
+his skin “kossack,” or jumper, at home, he might reasonably have been
+expected to seek shelter under one of the many rocks while I fished.
+Not so. He remained seated all the time out in the rain as if he were a
+mushroom. Late at night, after he had gone home, he came off again in
+his “kayak” to the ship to see me. “My boy dead,” he said. “Why did you
+not tell me he was ill? You knew we had medicine.” “No good; must die,”
+he replied.
+
+I went next morning to see the funeral. The Moravians have taught them
+to bury beneath the surface. A hole had been dug in the sandy ground;
+the body was put in, and the grave filled up with sand. An hour later
+not a sign remained to mark the spot. It would never suggest itself to
+them to visit it.
+
+In 1790, Cartwright, falling in love with an Eskimo girl, asked
+her hand from her husband Eketcheak, who had another wife himself.
+The reply was, “She is no good to work. Have this one and her two
+children.” Cartwright declined, saying he preferred the younger. “Take
+them all then,” said the generous husband. Cartwright explained he did
+not wish to trespass too much on his kindness. “Oh, you can give them
+back at the end of the year if you don’t want to keep them.”
+
+While we were in Okkak, an elderly squaw came to be treated for shaking
+of the knees. It appeared that she had never before seen a steamboat,
+and had received a severe fright at the arrival of the _Princess May_;
+for she thought it was a man-of-war come to punish her son Rudolph,
+who some time previously had shot his wife, being tired of her. Since
+that incident Rudolph had become a Christian, but, as his crime was
+still unpunished, by Moravian rule he could not be admitted to their
+communion.
+
+Remorse seemed to have seized him, and his one desire now was that his
+crime might be expiated by receiving its punishment at the hand of man.
+Naturally his mother was anxious.
+
+This lack of emotion seems to prevent a due appreciation of the
+principle of self-sacrifice. Thus, one day, while a heavy storm
+was raging, some of those ashore noticed a party in great distress,
+endeavouring to reach the mainland in one of their smaller boats. A
+heavy surf was rolling in, and it would no doubt have been risky to go
+out. So the idea of a rescue seems never to have suggested itself. The
+people were drowned, and in telling the story themselves afterwards,
+they said, shrugging their shoulders, “Kujana,” meaning, “It must
+be,” or “I don’t care for it”—a solution which to them is perfectly
+satisfactory.
+
+Yet they do at times brave deeds. Once last winter Michael and Simeon
+(they never have two names) in crossing from an island in their kayaks,
+were overtaken by a kind of blizzard. Simeon became unconscious and
+capsized. Michael, though himself almost _in extremis_, and having only
+his tiny kayak to fight the storm in, managed to get his friend out of
+the boat—into which they are usually laced—to put him on the back
+of his own canoe, and to carry him safely to land. Needless to say no
+Albert medal rewarded his brave deed. Unfortunately, the art of using
+the kayak is rapidly becoming lost, largely because the foolish Eskimo
+part with the seal-skins, necessary to cover their boats, in exchange
+for cheap and useless European goods. At one time, with their skin
+kossack or coat, laced over the opening, and fast round their wrists
+and face, they could upset with impunity, for with a couple of deft
+strokes with their paddles they were soon right way up again. Indeed,
+in heavy seas they would purposely upset, and so get the force of the
+broken water on the bottom or side of their boat, righting themselves
+immediately the danger had passed. In sport one kayak would “leap-frog”
+over another; or turning over on one side the “kayak man” would right
+himself on the other in their merry dexterity. Alas! that so marvellous
+an adaptation to the necessities of their lives should ever be
+relegated to a forgotten past. Broken water does them no more harm than
+it would to a swimming seagull, so exquisite is their buoyancy.
+
+Generosity and vanity form a queer combination in many of them. On
+one occasion, a family, which had long been struggling for the mere
+necessaries of daily life, were fortunate enough to catch in their
+large stone trap a black fox. With tears of joy the father took the
+skin to the store. God had heard his prayers. He was credited with £9
+worth of goods. When he got home, however, the well-filled cupboard
+so filled his heart with vanity that he issued an invitation to all
+his acquaintances “to come and eat and stay with him.” In two days the
+supplies ran out, and already again the wolf of hunger besieged his
+doors.
+
+In another case a Newfoundland planter had left an Eskimo in charge
+of his stores during the winter, giving him for himself a more than
+generous winter’s diet. Soon his friends, with their chronic state of
+hunger, came to pay him a visit. Without a thought as to consequences,
+the visit was prolonged indefinitely, and soon the whole of them
+were without provisions. The usual course to adopt next is to drive
+on and visit the nearest settlement, till all alike are “commercial
+travellers” in the same line of business. No wonder there is an Eskimo
+saying, “Do not live near the komatik (or sleigh) track.”
+
+Loyalty is said to be a marked feature in the Eskimo. They fully
+believed at Hopedale that Her Majesty the Queen sits on a rock on the
+look-out—as they do—in her anxiety for the arrival of the mission
+ship _Harmony_. We were charged with many personal messages by them to
+the Queen, expressing their deep sense of gratitude for sending the
+_Albert_ out to them.
+
+When they heard the English were at war in Egypt, they organized an
+impromptu regiment, with a captain in a discarded policeman’s coat and
+one odd epaulet, with which they proposed to the missionaries they
+should proceed to the seat of war. Indeed, they took no denial, and
+continued to drill till the opening of the sea turned their attention
+once more to cod-fishing.
+
+I must now close my few remarks about this interesting people. Some of
+their habits, which to us are more repellant, I have purposely passed
+over—such as their predilection for their meat to be “mikkiak,” or
+partly rotten, and their uncleanliness. What we saw of the Eskimo we
+liked: their gratitude for kindnesses done; their fortitude under
+the knife, or in pain; their merriment and good-nature often under
+circumstances most depressing. When talking to a dying Eskimo of
+forty-five, who for a fortnight had lain in terrible agony with his
+hands blown off, I asked the poor fellow if the pain was unbearable. He
+answered simply, “It is nothing to what my Saviour bore in the Garden
+for me.” His last words were singing Zinzendorf’s beautiful hymn:—
+
+    “Jesus, day by day,
+    Guide us on our way.”
+
+It continues:—
+
+        “Should the path us grieve,
+        Thee we’ll never leave;
+    Lord, in days of greatest sadness,
+    Let us bear our cross with gladness;
+        Trials mark the road
+        Leading home to God.
+
+        All our steps attend,
+        Guide us to the end;
+    Should the way be rough and dreary,
+    With Thy strength support the weary;
+        When our race is o’er,
+        Open, Lord, Thy door.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+_THE DEEDS OF HEROES_
+
+
+Some 18,000 people cluster around the shores of Trinity Bay, their
+scattered villages and fishing hamlets nestling on its creeks and
+coves. It was in February. The Ice King had laid his iron hand even
+on the giant ocean, and the floe ice of the frozen sea stretched far
+beyond the eye’s horizon. Yet these boldest among England’s sea-loving
+sons were adding to their scanty stock of this world’s goods by
+venturing far out among the treacherous ice in pursuit of seals.
+
+The morning of the 27th broke bright and beautiful, enhanced by a
+clear space of deep blue water between the shore and the inner edge
+of the ice. The eager hunters were early astir, and snatching a hasty
+breakfast, were soon off in their little boats, being but lightly clad,
+to give their limbs freer play in the various vicissitudes of their
+calling.
+
+From Trinity, Green Bay, Ireland’s Eye, boat glided out after boat,
+as the crack of the guns of those first afloat told of a prospect of
+success, until over 220 men were out. “’Tis a strange and awful thing
+to think, how often mortality stands on the brink of its grave without
+any misgiving.”
+
+Suddenly a dark cloud appeared in the north-east, with incredible
+rapidity masses piled themselves together, and then in a moment,
+from the heart of the black battalions, the tempest leaped in fury,
+struck the now darkened waters, and converted the bay into a seething,
+hissing cauldron. The temperature fell forty degrees, and the fierce
+cold, with the piercing wind, seemed to freeze the very blood in the
+veins. Gust followed gust, each more furious than the last, driving the
+angry sea in foam-capped mountains on to the doomed fleet of boats.
+Now began a desperate struggle for life, enough to appal the stoutest
+hearts. Two alternatives only were possible—first to face the teeth
+of the gale and row for their homes on the north shore; or, secondly,
+run before it, and endeavour to clamber over the ice to the southern
+side of the bay. Six boats tried the former. The spray, freezing as
+it fell, drenched the men to their skin, covering both boats and men
+with casings of solid ice. Slowly and painfully, in terrible danger
+each moment of being swamped, they lessened the distance between
+themselves and the shore. Suddenly a cry of despair arose from one of
+the boats—the oars had snapped, and the boat was drifting to certain
+destruction. Without a thought of the peril of the delay, and from the
+increased burden they would have to carry, the nearest boat at once
+went to their aid, and in that terrible sea took the perishing men on
+board. One of the poor fellows, however, was soon dead from cold and
+exhaustion. Ice began to form in thick masses on the bow and sides of
+the deeply-laden boat, and as each wave struck her she rose more and
+more heavily, until all saw the immediate need of lightening the boat.
+With sad, mute faces the men looked at each other. The dead man lay at
+the bottom of the boat, his white face and unclosed eyes turned towards
+the sky. “Come, boys,” said the oldest man, “it can’t be helped; Isaac
+must go overboard or we shall all be drowned.” Rapidly they raised the
+body, now draped in its icy shroud. “In the name of God we commit this
+body to the deep in sure, and certain hope of resurrection. Amen.” A
+dull plash and the reverent funeral service was over. The boat seemed
+now to float more buoyantly; but after another hour’s struggle for
+life, the brother of him whose remains had already been given to the
+sea, breathed his last. No doubt the horror of the scene had hastened
+his end. The sad ceremonial had to be repeated at once, for the ice was
+fast gaining and sinking the boat.
+
+Benumbed and exhausted in this death battle, all hope was nearly over
+when from the foremost boat a cry was raised which put fresh courage
+in their hearts—Land, ho! It was the well known “Horse Chop” rocks.
+Another desperate effort, and at last their keels touched the strand.
+But, alas! for the poor fellows even then. Some, unable even to leave
+the boats till helped by their companions, staggered feebly ashore,
+and tried to crawl up the steep gulch from their landing place; but
+strength failed them, and four more died after landing. It was a sad
+ending to so brave a fight.
+
+Deeds worthy of the highest praise were enacted in that gulch that
+day, the stronger helping the weaker, and endeavouring to restore and
+encourage those who were abandoning themselves to death. One tells
+how “I saw Robert Bannister manage to crawl partly up the cliff on
+his hands and knees. At last he just stopped, said, ‘God bless us,’
+and died where he was. His son was lying dead near him.” The nearest
+house was two miles away, but three men had now spied them. Hastily
+making a fire of brushwood, they helped the still living up the cliff,
+and putting some of their own garments on them, nursed some back to
+life—but here two more poor fellows perished, while their rescuers
+carried or helped them over that long two miles. Not one but suffered
+terribly from frost-bite, especially one poor fellow who had given his
+mittens to a lad without any.
+
+There were still twenty-four boats missing. What of them? Ice-covered,
+frost-bitten, and exhausted, some had reached harbours in the great
+bay, situated not so directly in the teeth of the storm; but of those
+who made for Bonaventure, Deer Harbour, Thoroughfare, and Ireland’s
+Eye, only one had died in the boat. But now deeds of even greater
+heroism were called for and performed. The men from Ireland’s Eye
+found that far out in the storm were men from English Harbour and
+Salmon Cove, who could not possibly reach home, and who might be
+sheltering on some off-lying uninhabited island, certain to perish
+during the night unless help were forthcoming. Food was partaken of,
+a brief rest snatched, God’s protecting care besought, and once more
+these heroes of the sea went out silently into that raging storm, from
+which they had but just escaped with their lives. “Inasmuch as ye did
+unto the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me.” Two boats
+were manned, and after fruitless search one returned safely, but empty
+handed, to the shelter of the harbour. The other, through the darkness
+of the falling night, saw at length a small light on a desolate spot
+near Thoroughfare. Fierce joy burnt in those noble hearts, as they
+strained every sinew to drive their stubborn craft through the now
+almost forgotten dangers. Alas, a sorrowful sight awaited them. There
+in their boat on the beach, amidst the roar of the storm, and the
+thunder of the surf, lay two poor fellows silent in death—swathed
+in their winding sheet of ice, and fast frozen to their boat. By the
+fire were three fishermen, half dead themselves, trying to rekindle
+the spark of life in two of their fast dying comrades. All were taken
+back by the rescue party, and the living nursed back to life at the
+nearest cottage. It was enough to move the most cynical to tears—wives
+and mothers wildly wringing their hands in agony of heart; and those
+strong men, with nerves of iron, wept like children.
+
+The storm raged all Saturday night, and from many a little home the men
+were still missing. During the long hours hope and despair alternated
+in many anxious hearts, for all knew they had drifted across the bay,
+and none knew what their fate might be.
+
+At noon on Sunday a woman, at Heart’s Content, on the southern
+side, happened to notice, far out in the bay, a small boat drifting
+helplessly about. But for this all must have perished. Rescue parties
+were at once formed, and soon five boats, with seventeen men, some in
+the last stage of exhaustion from the exposure of that awful night,
+were brought ashore. These men had spent the night on the ice; they
+had broken up and burnt two boats, which, with the fat of two seals
+they had killed, had kept off the worst of the cold, while some of the
+fresh meat, roasted in the flames, had helped to assuage the pangs
+of hunger and maintain the bodily heat. All these were more or less
+severely frost-bitten, but, with the loss of fingers, toes, or heels,
+all recovered. Later in the day the rest of the boats were seen, and
+twenty-seven more men rescued. One of these men, Patrick Hanlan, thus
+described his experiences:—
+
+“The spray was continually going over us, and freezing, and we soon
+saw it was impossible to reach land on the north side of the bay
+without running the risk of freezing to death. After a time we gave
+her a little sheet, and ran her for a pan of ice. Got out on the pan
+and made a fire to get something to eat and drink. Just as we were
+doing this, a sea broke over the pan, and washed everything off except
+ourselves. We had to jump in our boat and run her before the gale
+until about four in the afternoon. Just before dusk we caught up four
+other boats with twelve men in them. We all hauled up our boats on a
+large pan of ice, turned up the largest boats to make a shelter from
+the wind, and made a fire. I had two seals in my boat, and we pelted
+(_i.e._ skinned) them to burn the fat, breaking up one of the smaller
+boats, also, to use as fuel. We were on the ice drifting up the bay
+all night. It was bitterly cold, in spite of the big fire, and we had
+to keep dancing and jumping to keep up our spirits, and to keep from
+freezing. At dawn we were about five miles from Heart’s Delight. We
+hauled our boats over some ice, and then rowed for land, which we
+reached at nine o’clock. The people treated us with wonderful kindness,
+doing all in their power to relieve us. Under Providence they saved our
+lives, and we shall never forget their kindness.”[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: For the above account of this Trinity Bay disaster I am
+indebted to the Rev. Dr. Moses Harvey, LL.D., F.R.C.S., one of the
+truest friends the fishermen ever had.—W. T. G.]
+
+Enough has been said to show the stuff these men are made of, and there
+is not space here to multiply stories that point to the same traits
+of character, and that show the same self-sacrificing courage. Yet
+with such the history of these perilous fisheries abounds. With which
+statement of fact, gentle reader, I shall say adieu, thanking God if in
+any way I may still be of service to these toilers of the sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+_WE APPEAL FOR CANADIAN SYMPATHY_
+
+
+[Illustration: A Missionary in Winter Dress.]
+
+In November, 1893, Dr. Bobardt and myself visited Canada, with the
+hope of getting help for our work, seeing that some Canadians would
+at least benefit by it. In Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto we
+found friendly audiences. St. Paul’s Church (Episcopal), the Brunswick
+Street Methodist Church, and the Garison Chapel, all of Halifax, each
+paid for the support of one cot for a year, promising to endeavour to
+do so annually; while a small committee was organized in each place
+to keep alive an interest in the work, and to help by sending clothes
+and reading to St. Johns, Newfoundland, for us to carry to Labrador.
+Governor Daly, General Montgomery Moore, and Bishop Courtney, of Nova
+Scotia, were good enough to assist us in Halifax; while everywhere
+the members of that admirable institution, “The Brotherhood of St.
+Andrew,” extended their generous friendship to us. In Montreal, Sir
+Donald Smith, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, who himself had spent
+thirteen years in charge of one of the Company’s stations, presented
+a steamer to the Montreal Committee, to enable the work to be more
+efficiently carried out. Dr. Roddick, of Montreal, also presented the
+Mission with a sailing boat for Battle Harbour, called the _Urelia
+McKinnon_. His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Aberdeen, was
+good enough to preside at the meeting at Ottawa, and express his
+sympathy with the work. Indeed, for real interest and sympathy in every
+philanthropic work, and it is grand to know in every distinctively
+missionary work also, Canada is fortunate in possessing in both Lord
+and Lady Aberdeen examples of a kind alas far too rare in these
+so-called Christian days. A meeting was also held in Winnipeg, whither
+we went on a holiday trip, and here the Lieut.-Governor, Sir John
+Schultze, presided, and, with Lady Schultze, expressed great interest
+in the work. Samuel Blake, Esq., Q.C., so well known in Canada for his
+broad-minded Christian sympathies, was our chairman at Toronto. Our
+days at Toronto possessed for me an interest never experienced before.
+We fell on a great Missionary Convention, and from Mr. Warzawiak, of
+New York, Dr. MacKay, of Formosa, Dr. Gordon, of Boston, Dr. Pierson,
+of Philadelphia, and many other remarkable men, we heard of such
+difficulties overcome, obstacles removed, and successes attained by the
+Gospel in other fields in the missionary world, that it made one desire
+to be at work in China, Africa, and North America all at once.
+
+Reaching England in March, while preparations were being made for 1894,
+I was enabled to visit the North Sea fleets. The English fishermen
+expressed a most lively interest in their brethren over the sea, and
+the warm-hearted admiral of the Red Cross fleet sent me a large flag,
+that they might be “represented in Labrador.”
+
+Dr. Curwen having gone to China for the London Missionary Society, and
+Dr. Bobardt desiring to remain at home a year, our staff, consisting
+of Dr. Willway, Dr. Bennett, and the two sisters, sailed direct for
+Labrador in the _Albert_, while a volunteer Christian worker, who came
+and acted as chief engineer (Mr. W. B. Wakefield), and myself, left for
+Montreal, fitting out and despatching the S.S. _Princess May_, as we
+passed through St. Johns, Newfoundland.
+
+The _Albert_ had a long passage out, and meeting the outside of the
+floe ice, had a tough three days working her way through; now charging
+into large pans, now laying against masses piled up higher than her
+masts. Captain Trezise reported her as at one time in great danger of
+being overwhelmed by masses falling on to her decks. She, however,
+got through safely, and her magnificent sea qualities and rapid
+movements were more than ever before apparent to those in charge of her.
+
+[Illustration: Eskimo Brass Band at Moravian Mission Station of
+Hopedale.]
+
+Having landed Dr. Bennett and Sister Carwardine at Battle Hospital,
+she proceeded to Indian Harbour, where the hospital was rapidly placed
+in working order. Here the little wood building almost came to an
+inglorious and premature end by fire the first week of its existence;
+and we were indebted to the strenuous efforts of a number of fishermen
+for saving it from destruction, and to Commodore Curzon-Howe, of H.M.S.
+_Cleopatra_, for landing a body of blue jackets to repair the damage,
+enabling the work to proceed. The _Albert_ then returned and lay in
+Battle Harbour, to await the arrival of our steamer, the _Sir Donald_.
+Meanwhile, we had visited many stations from Montreal along the
+Labrador coast on the north side the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Everywhere
+we had had plenty of work to do: seeing sick people, operating
+where necessary, holding services, and distributing literature. We
+_everywhere_ found people deeply grateful for our visit, and glad to
+gather to hear the Gospel. Many spoke eagerly of the hopes raised that
+a third hospital would be erected in the Labrador or lower province of
+Quebec, to which the sick could be carried, and were anxious to forward
+a petition to Ottawa to that effect. We were everywhere entreated not
+to allow this to be our last visit. At La Romaine, a station of the
+Hudson Bay Company, we had a severe operation on a young Montaignais
+Indian hunter—otherwise doomed to die—and when we left three days
+later he was lying in his tent, on a clean bed of spruce boughs, on the
+high-road to recovery. At the last places we visited, we took patients
+aboard for Battle Hospital—one poor lad with a horrible affection of
+the hip, a girl with a useless wrist and arm, a child with hip-joint
+disease, and a sick woman for operation. All of these eventually
+returned home benefited or cured.
+
+Just before reaching Battle Harbour, with all our flags flying, our
+brass polished, and our spirits wild with expectancy of seeing our
+colleagues again, we suddenly struck a submerged rock, and for a few
+minutes lay in danger of rolling over and sinking in deep water. All
+hands behaved exceedingly well. Our boats were lowered, signals put
+up for two schooners which happened to be passing, to “stand by,”
+while kedge anchors were run out, in the endeavour to save the ship
+by warping her off the rocks. After a time, assisted by a heavy tide
+and the big ground swell, she came off and swung to her anchors in
+the deep water. Alas, for us, she had almost better have remained a
+complete wreck, for her keel and stem were broken, her rudder twisted,
+her propeller gone, her engines broken, and her side bulged in.
+Fortunately, we were able to travel over land to Battle Harbour; and
+Mr. Baine Grieve’s agent sent thence his bait launch and towed the
+_Sir Donald_ into harbour. Here we found the _Albert_, very anxious
+about our long delayed arrival, but now overjoyed to see us in any
+plight. As nothing could be done to repair the steamer in Labrador,
+Captain Trezise undertook the exceedingly risky attempt to tow the _Sir
+Donald_ to St. Johns, and this, after many exciting incidents and many
+close shaves of losing her, he successfully accomplished. There she now
+lies, undergoing repairs for another year’s work.
+
+Meanwhile, I left with the _Urelia McKinnon_ for Indian Harbour
+Hospital, and thence visited the Hudson Bay station at Rigolette, and
+many other places between Indian Harbour and Battle.
+
+Dr. Bennett was anxious to leave early for England, as he was appointed
+by the London Missionary Society to Tien-Tsin Missionary Hospital in
+China; and so, till winter drove the Newfoundland people off the coast,
+Battle Hospital came under my charge. On November 1st the sisters and
+myself left for Newfoundland, Dr. Willway remaining to hold the fort
+alone till we could return in 1895. His arrangements were to visit, if
+possible, as far as Blanc Sablon, and then returning to his hospital to
+meet our good friend Mr. Wilson, of Rigolette, at Cartwright, to travel
+with him north to Hopedale and Davis Inlet, and then to await at Battle
+Hospital our return.
+
+Thus, God willing, much good will be done, many sick and suffering
+ones relieved, many cheered and assisted in their struggle for
+existence, and, above all, the Gospel proclaimed in many homes where,
+but for the “Labrador Mission,” its sound would never reach during the
+long and weary winter months.[19]
+
+[Footnote 19: Dr. Willway left for the North on January 9th, the sea
+being then firmly frozen over.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+_SOME MEDICAL STATISTICS._
+
+
+There were treated from the _Albert_ in 1892 nine hundred patients, of
+which one-third might be called serious cases. An epidemic of influenza
+visited the coast, and this led to many cases of lung affections.
+Affections of the eyes were also common, while minor surgical cases
+were in great abundance. Seven operations were performed under
+anæsthetics.
+
+In 1893 there were treated:—
+
+In Labrador, the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the French shore of
+Newfoundland there were treated by—
+
+                                               In-Patients. Out-Patients.
+
+  Dr. Bobardt at Battle Hospital                   33            647
+  Dr. Curwen on the Hospital ship _Albert_          3          1,052
+  Dr. Grenfell on the steam launch _Princess May_   1            794
+                                                   ——          —————
+             That is a total of                    37          2,493
+
+
+These cases, for the council’s better information and that of the
+public, I analysed as follows. [Our case books are preserved in London
+for reference.]
+
+
+_Medical Cases._
+
+  Diseases of—
+     Digestive system                            633
+     Respiratory and circulatory system          194
+     Nervous system                               60
+     Excretory system                             40
+     Women                                        64
+  Diseases of special organs—
+     Eye (including 34 cases of night blindness) 211
+     Ear                                          40
+     Nose and throat                              93
+     Skin                                        105
+  Minor cases—Headaches, colds, strains          167
+  Cases of rheumatism                             64
+
+
+_Surgical Cases._
+
+  Affections of the upper limbs                  306
+  Affections of the lower limbs                   94
+  General surgical cases—Glands, bones, special
+    agues, rickets, tumour, fistula, etc.        188
+  Sundry minor cases                             210
+                                                ————
+                                    Total      2,493
+
+  Operations performed under chloroform           17
+  Major operations without chloroform             11
+  Minor surgical operations, including teeth     269
+
+There were in Battle Harbour Hospital the following named cots or beds:
+viz., Exeter, Brighton, Redhill, Hutchinson, Macpherson; also the John
+Fountain Elvin and John Charles Harris memorial cots.
+
+In the male ward were first the “Brighton cot.” This was occupied by a
+poor Newfoundland fisherman whom I brought 80 miles in the _Princess
+May_. He had consumption, and died after about two months in hospital.
+His body alone reached his relatives in Newfoundland.
+
+The second bed was the “Harris Cot.” There were three patients in this
+bed this season. The first was suffering with pleurisy; the second had
+to have his middle finger amputated, after a deep abscess of the hand;
+the third also had a severely poisoned hand.
+
+The third, the “Redhill Cot,” was occupied by a fisherman with
+paralysis of the right arm and leg, and then by a poor fellow with
+consumption.
+
+The fourth, the “Hutchinson Cot,” was occupied by, first, a man with
+a severely crushed hand; then by a poor fellow from far north, sent
+back by the _Albert_ (he was suffering from ulcer of the stomach); and,
+thirdly, by a French Canadian who was brought in a sealing steamer from
+Canadian Labrador, with a deep abscess of the back.
+
+The fifth, the “Exeter Cot,” was occupied, first, by a fisherman with
+rheumatic fever and heart disease; second, by a man with excessive deep
+inflammation of the arm and forearm; third, by a man with abscess in
+the palm of his hand; fourth, by a young American with an affection
+resulting from consumption in the system; fifth, by a very similar case
+with a Newfoundlander.
+
+The sixth, the “Macpherson Cot,” was in the female ward. First of all
+it was occupied by a young girl who had to undergo a serious operation;
+then by a woman who had come fifty miles down the Straits of Belle
+Isle with an internal disease; then by a poor girl brought south in the
+mail steamer from the cabin of one of the small fishing vessels. She
+died in hospital. The poor thing was engaged to be married this summer.
+Had she been able to come earlier for proper assistance there can be
+no doubt her life would have been saved. The fourth patient in this
+bed was a girl of eighteen. She had been suffering with an internal
+abscess for nearly three years when I saw her first in Sandwich Bay
+in the _Princess May_. After the operation we sent her by the mail to
+Battle Hospital. Here she remained some weeks, and on returning south
+in the _Princess May_, and again visiting Sandwich Bay, I found the
+girl returned, a new creature altogether. “I should like to have stayed
+always,” she told me.
+
+  W. T. G.
+
+
+ _The following are a few figures from my report rendered to the St.
+ Johns Auxiliary Branch of the M.D.S.F._:—
+
+In 1894, owing to the loss of the S.S. _Sir Donald_, and the fact
+of the _Princess May_ being unable to reach the coast, the work of
+the mission was much curtailed. Yet out of 1,306 patients treated a
+much larger proportion were serious cases, and more patients availed
+themselves of the hospitals. This number will no doubt increase.
+
+There were treated this year by—
+
+                                   In-Patients. Out-Patients.
+  Dr. Bennett at Battle Hospital        27           444
+  Dr. Willway at Indian Harbour         20           580
+  Dr. Grenfell on the _Sir Donald_ and
+    _Urelia McKinnon_                    4           231
+                                        ——         —————
+                              Total     51         1,255
+
+These were—
+              _Medical Cases._
+
+  Diseases of—
+      Digestive system                  226
+      Respiratory system                130
+      Nervous system                     55
+      Excretory system                   45
+      Women                              33
+  Minor cases—Colds, headaches           73
+
+              _Surgical Cases._
+  Diseases of—
+
+  Affections of the upper limbs          73
+  Affections of the lower limbs          64
+  General surgical affections, including
+    glands, bones, fistula, etc.        140
+  Minor surgery cases                   114
+  Diseases of special organs—
+      Eye                                90
+      Ear                                27
+      Nose and throat                    48
+      Skin                               74
+      Affection                          64
+  Operations performed under anæsthetics 25
+  Minor operations, including teeth     119
+  In-patients                            51
+                                      —————
+            Grand total               1,306
+
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+_SPIRITUAL AGENCIES IN LABRADOR_,
+
+SINCE JULY, 1892, AT WHICH TIME WE ARRIVED ON THE COAST.
+
+
+There is a Wesleyan missionary fifty miles west of Battle, at Red Bay.
+To visit all round his circuit and return must involve 250 to 300
+miles’ travelling. It must be remembered all this visiting is done in
+a small open boat in summer, at great risk in so dangerous a place as
+the Straits of Belle Isle; and in winter over the ice with a komatik
+and team of dogs. The Rev. J. Sidey was there three years, and is now
+replaced by Rev. J. Antle.[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: These Wesleyan missionaries are supported by the
+Methodist Church of Canada.]
+
+At Battle Harbour, as is well known to our readers, there is a wooden
+church, but it has been in charge of a young teacher and lay reader
+since we have been on the coast.
+
+At Cartwright, thirty miles up Sandwich Bay, is another wooden church
+and schoolroom combined. Here also is a lay reader and schoolmaster.
+This would be about 150 miles up the coast from Battle Harbour. The
+sphere of work does not, I think, extend at all outside Sandwich Bay.
+
+Fifty miles above Indian Harbour, up Hamilton Inlet, is a young
+Wesleyan minister. He has a small school and chapel on the south side
+of the inlet. We had the pleasure of taking him in the _Princess May_
+to his new sphere of work. His name is the Rev. G. Hollett, and his
+sphere of work is Hamilton Inlet, I think as far in as the North West
+river, that is eighty miles further, or 130 from Indian Harbour.
+
+From Indian Harbour to Hopedale the settlers number from 260 to 300,
+and are very poor and very scattered. The distance by sea is 150 miles,
+and again consists of a series of long bays and off-lying islands.
+There is no missionary or schoolmaster anywhere along this part of
+the coast, though once in the winter one of the Moravians travels over
+the ice as far south as Cape Harrison with his komatik and dogs, often
+at great peril to his life. Northward of Cape Harrison are only a few
+scattered European settlers, mixed among not less than 2,000 Eskimos.
+These are mostly members of the Moravian Church. The Moravian stations
+are from 50 to 100 miles apart.
+
+To meet the spiritual needs of all these people, scattered as they are,
+and of the 25,000 who visit the coast in summer—some 10,000 living
+on their vessels all the year—we only heard of one clergyman of the
+Church of England and one Wesleyan minister, with one Roman Catholic
+priest, visiting during part of the summer. This year, 1893, we did
+not hear of any peripatetic Wesleyan minister, and the only clergyman
+was rather in pursuit of health; but we met in the Straits of Belle
+Isle Bishop MacDonnel and the Rev. Father Lynch, of the Roman Catholic
+Church. I must mention also that the Bible Society send a colporteur
+every year to sell Bibles and testaments on the coast, though we did
+not fall in with him this year, nor do I know how much of the coast he
+travels over. Last year a tiny schooner, manned by three Salvation Army
+captains, also visited the coast, partly fishing and partly preaching
+the gospel. Among the fishermen themselves we met many earnest and
+pious Christians, and as on the North Sea, so on this bleak coast we
+have felt God’s presence quite as real and as near in the meetings on
+board or in the huts as we have in great buildings and comfortable pews
+in the old country.
+
+Among past workers in Labrador I hear of the Rev. J. G. Curling, Rev.
+Mr. Hutchinson, and Rev. Mr. Quintain. The last two spent many years in
+Labrador, while the Rev. J. Bull spent three years at Battle Harbour.
+The Right Rev. Llewellyn Jones, Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda,
+has also visited the coast, as did Bishop Field, his predecessor. The
+Rev. Father Lemoine, labouring among the Montaignais Indians of the
+interior, also sometimes comes out on the coast during the summer.[21]
+
+[Footnote 21: Bishop Jones sent three visiting clergymen to Labrador
+this summer 1894.]
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+_A FEW TESTIMONIES TO THE WORK FROM THOSE WHO KNOW LABRADOR_
+
+
+  _From the_ REV. F. S. HOLLETT, _Missionary of the
+  Canadian Methodist Church at Rigolette_:—
+
+  HAMILTON INLET,
+  LABRADOR.
+
+  DEAR DR. GRENFELL,—
+
+... Any way that we can help you, we will be glad to do it. As you know
+I can sympathise with you in the difficulties you meet with. D.V., we
+hope to have a visit from you next year. May God bless you in your
+noble work, and you will always remember,
+
+  I am
+  Your sincere brother in Christ,
+  FRANK S. HOLLETT.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_From_ DR. ROBERT MURRAY, _Editor of the “Presbyterian Witness”_:—
+
+  HALIFAX,
+  _December, 1894_.
+
+  DEAR DR. GRENFELL,—
+
+ ... From our Presbyterian teacher from Canadian Labrador we had most
+ favourable reports of your work. I examined him personally on his
+ return, as to what he had seen and heard.
+
+ While he had not seen the hospitals and the doctors, he had heard most
+ appreciative reports from fishermen ...
+
+  Yours very truly,
+  ROBERT MURRAY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_October 27, 1892._ A representative meeting of the colony of
+Newfoundland was held at Government House, St. Johns. There were
+present, amongst others, His Excellency the Governor, Sir Frederick
+Carter (Judge of Supreme Court), Sir William Whiteway (Premier),
+Major-General Dowell, R.A., Sir Robert Thorburn (late Premier), Hon. E.
+D. Shea, Hon. Robert Bond (Colonial Secretary), Hon. A. Goodridge (late
+Premier), Hon. A. W. Harvey, Hon. M. Munroe, and Messrs. W. Grieve, P.
+Tessier, E. Duder, W. Job, E. Outerbridge, representing the merchant
+firms, Captains the Hon. S. Blandford, W. Bartlett, N. Fitzgerald, J.
+Watson, representing the Labrador planters, and Messrs. Ch. Emerson,
+J. Withers,—Cohen, etc. After a discussion, in which several present
+took part, it was proposed by Hon. W. A. Harvey, seconded by Sir Wm.
+Whiteway, and when put by His Excellency the Governor unanimously
+resolved:—
+
+_Resolved._—“That this meeting, representing the principal merchants
+and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially on the coast of
+Labrador, and others interested in the welfare of this colony, desires
+to tender its warmest thanks to the directors of the Deep Sea Mission
+for their philanthropic generosity in sending their hospital ship
+_Albert_ to visit the fishing settlements on the Labrador coast.
+
+“Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions beyond the
+ordinary reach of medical aid or of charity, and it is with the
+deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount of
+medical and surgical work done, besides all the other relief and help
+so liberally distributed. This meeting also desires to express the
+hope that the directors of the Mission may see their way to continue
+the work thus begun, and should they do so they may be assured of the
+earnest support and co-operation of all classes of this community.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Subsequent to this great meeting the following resolution was passed
+and forwarded to the Mission:—
+
+ “That this representative committee will undertake to provide two
+ suitable buildings, which may be used as hospitals by the Mission to
+ Deep Sea Fishermen, should the Council of the Mission signify their
+ intention to continue their operations on the coast of Labrador, and
+ the Committee will heartily co-operate in any other way that the
+ Council of the Society may suggest.
+
+ “That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded for the
+ information of the society.
+
+  (Signed) {T. O’BRIEN, Governor, _Chairman_.
+           {M. MUNROE, _Secretary_.”
+
+  MONTREAL, _December, 1893_.
+
+A. BOBARDT, Esq., M.B., R.N., writing, says:—
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Often in Labrador have I been urged on to further work by noting how
+much a Mission visit is appreciated, and how the people do enjoy a
+meeting; and it seems a thousand pities that they cannot be brought
+under regular spiritual influences.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The small portable organ I had was most useful, and wherever I went it
+was my _Fidus Achates_, tending to infuse more life into my meetings.
+I found the people joined heartily in the hymns. Most of this visiting
+was done by boat, and it was in this work that one recognised fully the
+benefits of being able to handle an oar, and pull oneself wherever one
+wished to go.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the hospital I had thirty-three in-patients, and in the nursing of
+these I must pay tribute to Nurse Carwardine, who, by her unremitting
+zeal and attention, made many of these poor fishermen know for the
+first time what it was to be in a comfortable warm bed, and be
+skilfully attended to.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The comparison between them in hospital and in their own homes or
+smacks is too extreme to be drawn, and they were very grateful for what
+had been done for them.
+
+One case for example:—A gunshot wound of the hand came to hospital,
+and, though his hand was severely lacerated, he was able to return to
+his home with a useful limb, after being five weeks in. If this case
+had been left to itself, the young man must have either lost his arm,
+or had a stiff and useless hand; and the latter is in the way of a
+fisherman, who necessarily uses his hands so much in handling nets,
+lines, ropes, oars, etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many at Battle and the surrounding coves are now thanking God for
+His goodness in inspiring friends in England and elsewhere to send
+clothing for them this fall; the look of delight when they received
+their bundles was a treat to witness. On Tuesday, October 31st, we left
+Battle Harbour, amidst the salutes from many “Brown Sallys” (guns).
+We carried with us the pleasantest recollections, and the hope that
+the work would grow and increase, bringing health, happiness, and much
+comfort to these Labradorites.
+
+  Sincerely yours,
+  ALBERT BOBARDT.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_From_ Rev. JNO. SIDEY, _now three years Wesleyan Missionary at Red
+Bay_.
+
+  _November, 1892._
+
+ At the present time I believe there are but two ministers of the
+ Gospel between Hopedale, the Moravian settlement, and Blanc Sablon,
+ in the Straits of Belle Isle, a distance of over four hundred miles.
+ Around the coast line numerous settlements are scattered along the
+ route, and here in the best harbours are congregated during the
+ summer season thousands of fishermen from Newfoundland, Canada, and
+ the United States. They may, perhaps, the greater part of them, be
+ attendants at the various churches when at home; but out here, removed
+ from all religious influences, what wonder that they become dissipated
+ and lost in the spiritual darkness that abounds on the coast. The
+ Mission ship has visited these harbours, held services, and, if one
+ may take as a criterion the work done here, and the interest aroused,
+ a very favourable aspect is presented as to the spiritual portion of
+ the work.
+
+ But another and equally important phase of the work of the Mission
+ on these shores calls for the earnest sympathy and encouragement of
+ all who have interest in this noble enterprise—THE MEDICAL WORK. A
+ doctor is provided by the Government for this shore, during the summer
+ months, but as he is stationed on board the mail-boat, which only
+ calls just to land the mails and freight at comparatively a few of
+ the above-mentioned ports, his services are practically _nil_ to the
+ greater portion of the community. Yet the record of sick and disabled
+ fishermen is very large. Many have, year by year, to be sent home
+ in the mail-boats at the expense of the Government, losing also a
+ summer’s fishery, which in many cases might be avoided by a few days’
+ careful attention on board such a ship as the _Albert_. In such cases
+ it is not only the men themselves that suffer, but their families are
+ often starving throughout the long cold winters that follow. It may
+ be a bold suggestion, but perhaps worthy of a little consideration
+ (in view of the many harbours and extent of the coast), that were the
+ Society to substitute a small steam vessel for the _Albert_, much
+ more effective work could be accomplished, as then during the course
+ of the summer, at least, three trips instead of one might be made
+ along the whole shore; disabled fishermen could be accommodated on
+ board for a trip and carried back again without impeding the work of
+ the Mission; a representation might also be made to the Newfoundland
+ Government—who, according to repute, are at great expense to keep up
+ the useless custom of sending a doctor in the mail-boat, and carrying
+ home sick men—to do away with their arrangement, and grant a subsidy
+ towards the maintenance of a steam vessel, which could do the same
+ work far more effectually and, I doubt not, at less expense to them.
+
+ One word more in favour of the support of the Mission on this coast.
+ The system of trade, which is largely a credit and barter system,
+ deprives the men of the use of cash, even what they have really
+ earned; and until settling-up day in the fall, few feel themselves at
+ liberty to draw upon their little portion for the necessary comforts
+ of their toil; hence the distribution of the woollens, cuffs, etc.,
+ comes as a great boon to many a poor fisherman whose hands are cut
+ by the lines, or whose clothing, scant at all times, has become
+ deplorable by the wear and tear of a seafaring life. The writer has
+ seen much of this, and well knows how such gifts would be valued.
+
+ I trust that, as one who has lived and worked upon the coast, and
+ who knows by actual experience something of the need of the Labrador
+ shore, that I have said enough to evoke the sympathy of all who are
+ willing to give one thought to the toilers of the deep, to bestow
+ upon your noble Society the means for extending their work in this
+ direction. We are far away, but it should be remembered that a large
+ quantity of fish is exported to England from Newfoundland; besides, we
+ claim kindred, we are, for the most part, of the old British stock,
+ and, above all, we are children of the same Heavenly Father who cares
+ for all alike.
+
+ May the Almighty bless the work already done, and touch the hearts of
+ His children, so that the means may not be wanting when men are ready
+ to sacrifice their all to undertake this noble task.
+
+  Yours faithfully,
+  JNO. C. SIDEY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Far away in that ice-bound, snow-clad country, there are men and women
+struggling with poverty, hunger, and disease. Could our kind friends
+at home, while sitting around their warm firesides with their dear
+children, supplied with every want and comfort, take a peep into the
+many miserable hovels, where men, women, and children are ill-fed,
+poorly-clad (in some cases nearly naked), suffering from sickness; and
+with no prospect of roughing the winter out, as all traders are gone,
+their only resource is to apply to the nearest fishing station, perhaps
+many miles away, for charity, which, I am thankful to say, is very
+rarely refused to them—could our kind friends but get a peep at them,
+I feel sure that they would be only too glad to do a little to relieve
+their wants. There are many residents scattered far and wide, some in
+fairly good circumstances, and there is, without doubt, an immense
+field of labour, both spiritually and medically, and I trust that many
+friends may be found to assist in this branch....
+
+Hoping that I have been successful in showing you that there is,
+indeed, a cry from Labrador: “Come over and help us.”
+
+  JOSEPH F. TREZISE (late Master of _Albert_).
+
+_December 8, 1892._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  DEAR DR. GRENFELL,—
+
+ The laudable work in which you are engaged has my warmest sympathy,
+ and I trust that your endeavour in so good a cause will meet with the
+ success it deserves.
+
+ I visited the Labrador coast many years ago, as far north as Cape
+ Harrison, and I then saw the many hardships endured by the hardy
+ fishermen and their families. Yours is a most deserving charity.
+
+ Trusting that you will have a large audience when you lecture in the
+ city,
+
+  Believe me,
+  Yours very truly,
+  ROBERT PATON MCLEA,
+  Montreal, Canada.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ MORAVIAN MISSIONS, SECRETARY’S OFFICE, 7, FURNIVAL’S INN, LONDON, E.C.
+
+  _Nov. 3rd._
+
+  _To_ F. H. WOOD, Esq., _Secretary Deep Sea Mission_.
+
+  DEAR SIR,—
+
+ I am commissioned by the Committee of our Society for the Furtherance
+ of the Gospel to convey to your Mission our thanks, and those of our
+ missionaries at Hopedale, for the visit of the _Albert_. They write
+ very gratefully of the medical aid, and especially of the spiritual
+ fellowship and impulse afforded them, and they expressed the hope that
+ the visit may be repeated. They say there is no lack of work, and the
+ Divine blessing will crown such faithful endeavours to minister to
+ the scattered schoonermen and others along the coast.... We beg our
+ Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel to express hearty thanks in
+ our name, and that of the Eskimos....
+
+  Yours faithfully,
+  B. LA TROBE,
+  _Secretary_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_From_ Rev. MOSES HARVEY, LL.D., F.R.S., _St. Johns_,
+
+  _July, 1893._
+
+ The great need of hospital work on Labrador is seen when it is
+ considered how many cases occur of blindness, deformities, or loss
+ of certain faculties, affecting the bread-winners of families, most
+ of which might have been prevented if treated in time, and thus much
+ personal suffering spared, and also a great loss to the community.
+ During the season the medical men were able to render such aid that
+ several who had been compelled to give up work found themselves
+ capable of resuming their duties. When sick persons are thus saved
+ from losing their season’s work, or saved the time and expense
+ involved in returning to Newfoundland for advice, in cases of minor
+ importance; or when, as happened in several instances during the
+ season, the lives or limbs were saved, or, in some hopeless cases,
+ life was prolonged so as to allow them to reach home and end their
+ days in the bosom of their families, the value of this hospital work
+ becomes more apparent.
+
+ To the sick of Labrador these hospitals will be an inestimable boon.
+ Only those who have known what it is to toss on a bed of pain, perhaps
+ unable even at night to find rest, their tongue parched with thirst,
+ and fever raging in their system, can properly appreciate the meaning
+ of the skilful help of the physician, the delicate attention of the
+ trained nurse, the hushed house, the subdued voices and the gentle
+ light of the half-darkened room. When this is contrasted with the sad
+ sight so often witnessed on Labrador, of delicate women, and even
+ children, undergoing sufferings, which are hard to bear even amid
+ the comforts and gentle attentions of home, on the dreary coast of
+ Labrador, far from every helping hand, or in the dark hold of some
+ small fishing vessel, where the atmosphere is poisonous, and the
+ noises to the sick distressing and almost maddening, it is then we
+ realize the value of the noble humane work in the hospitals erected on
+ storm-beaten Labrador for the relief of suffering humanity. Who would
+ not aid in such a good work!
+
+
+DISTRIBUTION OF CLOTHING.
+
+The _Albert_ brought from England a very large stock of clothing,
+both new and cast-off, the gift of kind charitable friends. This was
+distributed with the greatest care and discrimination, every precaution
+being used to guard against imposition. The cases of utter or partial
+destitution of clothing among families who reside permanently on
+the Labrador coast, were numerous, and much timely aid was given,
+especially to women and children. Food was also given in cases of
+extreme destitution. Many families were thus helped to provide for the
+long, cold winter of this region. There is no doubt that every spring
+some families are driven to subsist on mussels and seaweed they can
+gather along the land-wash. With ice on the coast no help can reach
+them.
+
+
+DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS, PERIODICALS, AND TRACTS.
+
+A very large supply of wholesome literature was carried on board the
+Mission ship, and, wherever she went, was freely distributed among the
+fishermen. Wherever it was found in any family that any one could read,
+a gift was made either of illustrated or plain literature, or both.
+
+
+RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
+
+Wherever the _Albert_ or _Princess May_ called, when opportunity
+offered, especially on Sundays, religious services were held, which
+all were invited to attend. Hymns were sung, prayers offered, and
+simple addresses given on Scriptural subjects. These services were much
+appreciated among these lonely sea-toilers; and thus something was done
+to make known that Gospel which has brought such blessings to mankind,
+but without any reference to creed or sect being made.
+
+The steam launch, _Princess May_, proved to be of great service in
+the Mission work. Dr. Grenfell was enabled to go up uncharted bays
+in her, so as to visit a large number of the small settlements which
+would otherwise not have been within reach. He was thus able to make
+a thorough examination into the condition of the residents, and to
+collect accurate statistical information regarding them to an extent
+never before attempted. In all, he visited eighty-seven different
+settlements on the Labrador coast, as far north as Okkak. Dr. Curwen,
+in the _Albert_, visited thirty-five more settlements; and Dr. Bobardt
+visited all the places in the vicinity of Battle Harbour.
+
+
+APPENDIX D
+
+_POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE_
+
+
+To gauge as accurately as possible the condition of the people, we
+prepared as full a census of them—of their belongings, their families,
+and their accomplishments—as we could. In this, during three years,
+I have had the assistance of four medical men besides myself, of the
+resident missionaries on the coast, and of the Moravian brethren
+further north.
+
+We find the people, as a rule, very poor, often reduced to the verge
+of starvation. The causes we believe to be (1) depletion of fisheries
+and fur-bearing animals, and bad seasons. (2) Inability to replenish
+traps, guns, nets, boats, etc., when worn out. (3) Inability to secure
+proper clothing and supplies of food when once they become overwhelmed
+in debt. These causes have led to (4) loss of energy, apathy, and even
+despair.
+
+There are some families still comfortably off, but these are
+impoverished by their own generosity, which impels them continually
+to assist their poorer brethren. Where they are still well off, it is
+generally because they have a number of grown-up unmarried sons, or
+are in some harbour well separated from other settlers. This last
+fact is more patent as one travels north. The census papers are in my
+possession now. I will quote here some bad cases.
+
+ Two families here quite destitute. R—— R—— and L—— R——. There
+ was neither tea, molasses, nor flour in either house, and their
+ clothing was literally dropping to pieces, while one boy was barefoot
+ and the others had boots tied on to their feet by string to keep the
+ pieces together. If ever hunger wrote its name clearly on people’s
+ faces it was written on these people’s, the children being pale and
+ bloodless, the woman haggard and careworn. The mother told me, in most
+ pathetic way, “Even the berries will be covered deep in snow soon,
+ and then we have only starvation to look to.” They had _no flour to
+ face the winter_, and apparently no means of obtaining any. Neither
+ family had seal nets, salmon nets, or cod nets, or could pay for twine
+ to braid any, and both men showed me their powder-horns and shot-bags
+ empty, or nearly so. I found on returning to the launch, the captain
+ had given his bag of biscuits away to these people.
+
+  W. T. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ A—— P——. Seven children, very poor and ill-clad; very poor supply
+ of food, miserable hut, no nets. The lay reader[22] found three inches
+ of snow blow in and remain on the floor of the only room one night
+ in winter he slept here. He found one counterpane and a pair of man’s
+ trousers almost all the clothing the children had, including the
+ eldest, a girl of fourteen. These had to stay indoors, of course, all
+ winter.
+
+ [Footnote 22: Mr. Dicks, of Cartwright.]
+
+  W. T. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ S—— B——. Seven children. Very poor, very naked, short of food, no
+ apparatus to kill fish except a few hooks. Miserable one-roomed hut.
+
+  W. T. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ E—— O——. Wife and two undergrown boys; father has consumption.
+ All very badly clothed; not a single flannel garment among them. No
+ blankets; bedclothes in rags. One trout net; caught only enough fish
+ for their consumption. Nine quintals last year, with which cleared
+ part of his debt, and got one barrel of flour and two pounds of tea
+ for his “winter diet.” Shot some birds and one seal. Now there is
+ nothing but three pounds of broken biscuits in the house.
+
+  ELIOT CURWEN.
+
+
+APPENDIX E
+
+_THE FISHING SCHOONERS_
+
+
+I have spoken of these in a general way. Here are a few specimens of
+notes from our diaries as to numbers of crews and “freighters” carried.
+
+  B——. 34 tons. Crew, 7 men and 2 women.
+            Passengers, 19 men and 16 women.
+
+ A total of 44 souls. All passengers in one hold—no partitions. 23
+ days out from home.
+
+  F——. 19 tons. Crew, 6 men and 1 woman.
+            Passengers, 28 men and 15 women.
+
+ A total of 50 souls. No name or register on her.
+
+  I——. 50 tons. Crew, 8 men and 2 women.
+            Passengers, 75 men and 15 women.
+
+ A total of 100 souls. Measured cubic space of one man, his wife, boy,
+ girl, and two men, 8 ft. by 6 ft. by 3 ft.
+
+  X——. _Brigantine_, 116 tons. 66 men, 24 women.
+
+  Y——. Small schooner-rigged vessel, 5 tons.
+  4 men, 1 woman, etc.
+
+The larger merchants all send their crews down in steamers. This has
+the double advantage of securing better accommodation, and immensely
+shortening the passage. We are all strongly of the opinion that nothing
+can be said in defence of allowing girls to form part of the regular
+crews of the green-fish catchers, or of any fishing vessel. It appears
+to be necessary that women should go down as passengers; and with
+proper provisions there is no reason why they should not do so.
+
+Here is the result of an accident to such a vessel this year.
+Unfortunately I did not ascertain her tonnage.
+
+On Thursday, the 14th inst., we left Spaniard’s Bay, bound to Horse
+Harbour, Labrador, on a fishing voyage, having on board a number of
+sixty-two souls, comprising men, women, and children. All went well,
+until about eight miles north-east of Partridge Point (White Bay). On
+the 17th inst., at 4 p.m., Sunday, while in a dense fog, the vessel
+struck a large pan of ice, which crushed her bows in, causing her to
+fill and sink in about eight or ten minutes. Five or six men succeeded
+in getting on the pan of ice with a line, and secured it as best they
+could to the pan. Unfortunately it could not be secured on board,
+owing to the dreadful panic which was taking place; so she fell off a
+considerable distance from the pan, preventing any one from getting on
+the ice. A few boats were then thrown over, but before any one could
+be taken on board the boats, the vessel sank, leaving men, women and
+children floating among the wreckage in the water. Some of the few
+boats filled, and were upset, leaving only two to pick up the men,
+women and children, who were then struggling for their lives in the
+water. After a very hard fight we managed to save fifty (including who
+were in the boats), leaving twelve poor souls to meet a watery grave,
+namely, eight men, two boys, and two young women. Some of the women
+and children were almost totally naked, having jumped out of bed, and
+had not time to even catch their clothes. These would have undoubtedly
+died before many hours were over, as they were both wet and naked, had
+not the schooner _Irene_, Captain Bursey, of Catalina, arrived at this
+opportune moment, and quickly got us on board, and brought us into
+Coachman’s Cove.
+
+  I am, respectfully yours,
+  HENRY GOSSE,
+  Late Master of Schooner _Rose_.
+
+SPANIARD’S BAY, _June 28th, 1894_.
+
+
+Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 ***
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+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 ***</div>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h2>Transcriber’s Note</h2>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_23">Page 23</a>&#8212;the word ‘redpoles’ have been
+left as originally spelt.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_62">Page 62</a>&#8212;presbyterian changed to
+<strong>Presbyterian</strong>.</p>
+
+<p>The Footnotes have been changed to a numeric order and placed at the
+end of paragraphs they relate to.</p>
+
+<p>The book cover is labelled - “Labrador and its people, Grenfell”,
+whereas the book is officially entitled, “Vikings of to-day, or life
+and medical work among the fishermen of Labrador.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter width650" id="cover">
+ <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" width="1678" height="2560">
+</div>
+
+<h1>VIKINGS OF TO-DAY</h1>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_002">
+<img src="images/i_002.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="442">
+<p class="caption center">S.S. PRINCESS MAY.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="title-page">
+<p class="center p120"> VIKINGS OF TO-DAY</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<p class="center"> <span class="smcap">Or Life and Medical Work<br>
+    among the<br>
+    Fishermen of Labrador</span></p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<p class="center"> BY</p>
+
+<p class="center p80"> WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.R.C.S.E., L.R.C.P.
+    <em>Holder of the Board of Trade Certificate of Competency as Master Mariner</em></p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<p class="center p80"> ILLUSTRATED FROM<br>
+    ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_003">
+<img src="images/i_003.jpg" alt="" width="130" height="110">
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center p80"> FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
+    <span class="smcap">New York</span> <span class="smcap">Chicago</span> <span class="smcap">Toronto</span>
+    <cite>Publishers of Evangelical Literature</cite>
+</p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<span class="oldeng p120">Dedicated</span>
+
+<p class="center p80"> BY KIND PERMISSION TO</p>
+
+<p class="center p80"> HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF YORK,</p>
+
+<p class="center"> <em>whose practical and gracious interest in the welfare of<br>
+    these far-off “Toilers of the Deep” has served in<br>
+    no small way to assist this enterprise, and to<br>
+    fire with loyal affections the hearts of<br>
+    England’s sons across the sea</em>.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="center" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> FREDERICK TREVES, F.R.C.S.,</p>
+
+<p class="left"><em>Surgeon to the London Hospital. Examiner in Surgery at the University<br>
+of Cambridge. Chairman of the Hospital Committee of the Mission<br>
+to Deep Sea Fishermen.</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the present time—near to the close of the nineteenth century—we
+are being constantly reminded, with somewhat unpleasant
+persistence, that the human race is degenerating and that the
+changes of decay are most marked among the most civilised
+people. It is among the young men especially that these
+unwelcome signs of the times are assumed to be the more noticeable.
+It is claimed that the splendid physique and the heroic courage of
+the British race are both deteriorating, and that those who seek
+for the time of noble deeds and sturdy hearts must turn back to
+the days of Elizabeth—to the stirring times of Drake and Raleigh.</p>
+
+<p>There is said to be no longer a field for that pluck and daring,
+or for that determination and persistency, which at one period made
+the name of the British famous throughout the world.</p>
+
+<p>It would be idle, in this place, to inquire into the substance of
+these moanings and regrets, and it would be reasonable perhaps
+to allow that there may be some real or apparent element of truth
+in these lamentations over the man of the present.</p>
+
+<p>Be this as it may, it will be agreeable to those who are most
+concerned in these forebodings to turn to the record contained in
+this volume, while those who view with some disgust the fashionable
+youth of the day, with his many effeminacies and affectations,
+will find in the pages which follow some wholesome relief to their
+distaste.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Grenfell’s narrative will take the reader away from the
+heated, unnatural and debilitating atmosphere of the modern city,
+from the enervated crowd, from the pampered, self-indulgent
+colonies of men and women who make up fashionable society, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>
+will carry him to a lonely land where all conventionalities vanish,
+and where man is brought into contact with the simplest elements
+of life and with the rudimentary problems of how to avoid starvation
+and ward off death from cold.</p>
+
+<p>The present volume deals with a land of desolation, with a
+country hard, relentless, unsympathetic and cruel, where, among
+fogs and icebergs, a handful of determined men are trying to hold
+their own against hostile surroundings and to earn a living in
+defiance of dreary odds.</p>
+
+<p>When the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen resolved to send an
+expedition to Labrador, it was evident that the man to go with
+it was Grenfell. He was well known both at Oxford and in London
+as a hardy athlete; he was a skilled and able surgeon; he was
+profoundly interested in Mission work; and the sea had for him
+that magical attraction which a few centuries ago emptied nearly
+every little cove and fishing hamlet in Cornwall and Devon of its
+heartiest men, and carried them over the high seas to the ends of
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Grenfell went, and the good work of the Mission was established
+on the Labrador. It was no little matter to bring into the hard
+and desperate life of the Labrador fishermen a touch of kindly and
+practical sympathy from the old country. It was no little matter
+to travel for many hundreds of miles along a grim, inhospitable
+coast, where buoys and beacons are unknown and where there
+is scarcely a bay or island which has not been the scene of some
+lonely disaster.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen from this book that the race of Vikings is not
+yet extinct, on the one hand, and that on the other the spirit of
+enterprise and daring is not yet lost to the English people, and
+that the modern rover of the sea differs from his predecessor in
+little save the motive of his expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Those who know how to value the comforts of an English
+home, and who can appreciate the quiet content and the beauty of
+an English village, will be induced by this book to feel no little
+sympathy for those whose lives are cast among the dreary islands
+and deserted bays of Labrador.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+FREDERICK TREVES.<br>
+</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="AUTHORS_PREFACE">AUTHOR’S PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This book is intended to give a general account of
+the country and people of Labrador, and to summarize
+the efforts made by the council of the
+Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, during the past
+three years, to brighten the lives of the many
+brave toilers of the sea on that desolate coast.</p>
+
+<p>I have avoided the use of scientific terms, and
+have ventured to quote from some of the few books
+on the subject without the permission of the authors.
+Amongst these are Dr. Nansen’s <cite>Eskimo Life</cite>, Mr.
+Packard’s <cite>The Labrador Coast</cite>, Dr. Harvey’s <cite>Newfoundland,
+the Oldest British Colony</cite>, Crantz’s <cite>Explorations
+in Greenland</cite>, Hinde’s <cite>Explorations in
+Labrador</cite>, Cartwright’s <cite>Journals</cite>, Rev. J. Moreton’s
+<cite>Life and Work in Newfoundland</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>The universal kindness and hospitality extended
+to the Mission Staff in Labrador, Newfoundland and
+Canada, and the almost unlimited scope for work,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span>
+have made these three years, three of the most
+enjoyable in our lives.</p>
+
+<p>To his Excellency the Governor of Newfoundland
+Sir Terence O’Brien, K.C.M.G., Chairman of the St.
+Johns Committee, among many others, our warmest
+thanks are due.</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations in this volume are from photographs
+taken on “Barnet Plates” kindly presented
+to the Society by Messrs. Elliot &amp; Fry.</p>
+
+<p class="right">WILFRED T. GRENFELL.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><em>March, 1893.</em></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table><tr>
+<td class="cht"></td>
+<td class="pag"><small><small>PAGE</small></small></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter I.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The Country</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter II.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Natural Features</span></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn"> Chapter III.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Of the Birds and Larger Fishes</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn"> Chapter IV.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Of the Fur-bearing Animals</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn" >Chapter V.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">We go to Labrador and Start Work</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn"> Chapter VI.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Do People Live in Labrador?</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter VII.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Just how Fish are Caught</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter VIII.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The Truck System</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter IX.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Results of the First Visit</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_85">85</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter X.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Our Second Season</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XI.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Our Voyage Continued</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XII.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Conclusion of Second Voyage</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XIII.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">On Dogs and Difficulties</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XIV.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">On Seals and Sealers</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XV.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">On the Esquimaux</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XVI.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The Deeds of Heroes</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn">Chapter XVII.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">We Appeal for Canadian Sympathy</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="ccn" >APPENDICES.</td>
+  <td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <em>A.</em> <span class="smcap">Some Medical Statistics</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <em>B.</em> <span class="smcap">Spiritual Agencies in Labrador</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <em>C.</em> <span class="smcap">Testimonies to the Work</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <em>D.</em> <span class="smcap">Poverty of the People</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <em>E.</em> <span class="smcap">The Fishing Schooners</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS <span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<table class="toi">
+<tr>
+<td class="cht"></td>
+<td class="pag"><small><small>PAGE</small></small></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">s.s. <em>Princess May</em></span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#i_002"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Entrance to St. Johns Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_7">5</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">A Shoal of Caplin Jumping out on to the Beach</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_10">10</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Iceberg in August off Tub Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_17">17</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">My First Caribou and Guide</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_21">21</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Eskimo Boys</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_28">28</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">A Beaver</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_32">33</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The Albert in Bateaux Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_44">45</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Hudson Bay Company’s Post at Rigolette</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_50">50</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Fields of Fish Drying in the Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_55">53</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Boat returning from the Trap</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_66">66</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Snug Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_71">69</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Cartwright Staff</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_76">76</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">A Visit from Eskimo</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_84">85</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Moravian Station, Hopedale</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_91">89</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The <em>Princess May</em> in Hamilton Inlet</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_102">102</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Interior of Male Ward, Indian Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_107">105</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">A Newfoundlander’s Hut, Labrador</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_114">114</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Interior of Indian Harbour Hospital</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_119">117</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The s.s. <em>Princess May</em> in Merchantman Harbour</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_131">131</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">An Eskimo Family, Hopedale</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_136">137</a> <span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Team of Dogs in Harness</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_143">143</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Eskimo Family</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_153">151</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">The s.s. <em>Sir Donald</em></span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_157">157</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Eskimo on an Island near Okkak</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_167">165</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Eskimo in Reindeer Tent, Okkak</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"> <a href="#Page_174">174</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Taken from an Eskimo Grave at Long Island</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_180">181</a> </td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht"> <span class="smcap">Eskimo Brass Band</span> </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_207">205</a> </td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="VIKINGS_OF_TO-DAY">VIKINGS OF TO-DAY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>THE COUNTRY</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_015">
+<img src="images/i_015.jpg" alt="A large iceberg" width="350" height="356">
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is said that a recent trial, over
+a dispute about the fishery of a small natural harbour in Labrador,
+called Tub Harbour, had reached its third day, when his lordship,
+leaning over the desk, whispered to counsel, “Where is Labrador”? Not
+to be caught, however, the counsel whispered back, “In Tub Harbour, my
+lord.” Geography, it seems, is a sadly neglected science.</p>
+
+<p>Such being the case, I have ventured to describe
+the general features of the country in the terse,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>
+accurate, graphic, and authoritative words of the
+<cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>“Labrador, properly so called,” says the <cite>Encyclopædia</cite>,
+“is the peninsular portion of North America,
+bounded by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the North Atlantic,
+Hudson Straits, Hudson Bay, and vaguely
+defined towards the S.W. by Rupert’s River, Mistassini
+River, and Bersiamits River. Its greatest length
+is 1,100 miles, its greatest breadth 700 miles. The
+area is approximately 420,000 square miles, that is,
+as large as the British Isles, France, and Austria.
+The coast from Blanc Sablon, a spot 85 miles up
+the Straits of Belle Isle, to Cape Chidley at the entrance
+to Hudson Bay straits, and all the off-lying
+islands, with the country inland about 70 miles, are
+under the government of Newfoundland. The rest
+is part of the province of Quebec, under Canadian
+rule.”</p>
+
+<p>Sterile and forbidding it lies among fogs and icebergs,
+famous only besides for dogs and cod. “God
+made this country last,” says an old navigator. “He
+had no other view in end than to throw together
+here the refuse of His materials as of no use to
+mankind.”</p>
+
+<p>“As a permanent abode of civilized man,” says the
+<cite>Encyclopædia Britannica</cite>, “Labrador is, on the whole,
+one of the most uninviting spots on the face of the
+earth. A vast tableland occupies much of the interior.
+This plateau, says Professor Hind, is pre-eminently
+sterile, and where the country is not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>
+burned, caribou moss covers the rocks, with stunted
+spruce, birch, and aspens in the hollows and deep
+ravines. The whole is strewed with an infinite number
+of boulders often three and four deep. Language
+fails to paint the awful desolation of the tableland
+of the Labrador peninsula. The Atlantic coast is
+the edge of a vast solitude of rocky hills, split and
+blasted by frosts, and beaten by waves. Headlands,
+grim and naked, tower over the waters—often fantastic
+and picturesque in shape—while miles and
+miles of rocky precipices or tame monotonous slopes
+alternate with stony valleys, winding away among
+the blue hills of the interior.”</p>
+
+<p>The cliffs rise from the ocean to a height of
+from 500 to 1,000 feet. The watershed of the interior
+plateau is on an average 150 miles from the
+coast, and rises considerably over 5,000 feet. Near
+Cape Chidley the hills are close to the sea, rising to
+the height of 6,000 feet, and the view from the sea
+is magnificent. A powerful current coming from
+Hudson Bay, combined with the great rise and fall
+of tide, renders navigation here very dangerous. A
+high, bare peak of syenite, inland from Cape Harrison,
+and known as Mount Misery, is visible seventy-five
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>We are accustomed to think of Columbus as discovering
+America, but it seems certain that about
+the year 1000, while Northman and Saxon were
+struggling for pre-eminence in this England of ours,
+bold Vikings from Iceland visited Labrador. In the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>
+Sagas of Erik the Red and of Thorfinn Karlsefne, we
+read of a strange land they visited and called Vinland<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or
+Wineland, which most probably was Labrador.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> See Hon. L. G. Power’s paper on “Vinland,” read before the Nova
+Scotia Historical Society in 1887.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, it is needless to say grapes do not
+abound in Labrador, and we southerners should not
+describe it now as the “Land of Wine.” But we
+must remember that Erik came from Iceland, and
+was also possibly addicted to the proverbial fault of
+travellers. Moreover, when Erik returned from one
+of his voyages he called the land he had visited
+“Greenland,” not with reference to its nature, because
+Biarni, a contemporary voyager, describes it
+as a land of “mountains and high ice hills,” but “he
+called it Greenland because, quoth he, people will be
+attracted thither if the land has a good name.” An
+amusing incident, which I quote from Mr. Power’s
+paper, arose out of this. When Thorfinn Karlsefne
+and Snorri were making an endeavour to colonize
+the “Vinland” they most inappropriately ran short
+of provisions. Now it so happened they had with
+them Thorhall, the hunter. “He was a large man
+and strong, black and like a giant, silent and foul-mouthed
+in his speech, and always egged on Erik
+to the worst; he was a bad Christian; he was well
+acquainted with uninhabited parts. Thorhall now
+suddenly disappeared. They had previously made
+prayers to God for food, but it did not come so quick
+as they thought their necessities required. They
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>searched after Thorhall three days, and found him
+on the top of a rock; there he lay, and looked up
+in the sky and gaped with both nose and mouth, and
+murmured something. They asked him why he had
+gone there. He said it was no business of theirs.
+They bade him come home with them, and he did
+so. Soon after, came there a whale, and they went
+thither and cut it up, and no one knew what sort
+of whale it was; and when the cook dressed it, they
+ate it, and all became ill in consequence. Then said
+Thorhall: “The red bearded was more helpful than
+your Christ; this have I got now for my verses
+that I sung to Thor, my protector. Seldom has he
+deserted me. But when they came to know this
+they cast the whole whale into the sea, and resigned
+their case to God. Then the weather improved, and
+it was possible to row out fishing, and they were
+not then in want of food, for wild beasts were caught
+on the land, and fish in the sea, and eggs collected
+on the island.” Now, when Thorhall bore water to
+the ship, and drank, then sang he this song:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“People told me when I came</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Hither, all would be so fine;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The good Wineland, known to fame,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Rich in fruits and choicest wine;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Now the water pail they send</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">To the fountain I must bend,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Nor from out this land divine</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Have I quaffed <em>one drop</em> of wine.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_019">
+<img src="images/i_019.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="434">
+<p class="caption center">Entrance to St. Johns Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And when they were ready, and hoisted sail, then
+chanted Thorhall—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“Let our trusty band</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Haste to Fatherland;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Let our vessel brave</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Plough the angry wave;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">While those few who love</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Wineland, here may rove,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Or, with idle toil</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Fetid whales may boil,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Here on Furderstrand</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Far from Fatherland.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>So that Vinland, in the year 1000, to which this
+voyage had been made because “the people of Brattahliel
+began to talk much about it,” saying, “a
+voyage thither ought to be particularly profitable
+by reason of the fertility of the soil,” appears to
+have turned out no better than we found Labrador
+in 1891. The famous log-books of George Cartwright,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+written about 1790, give a more reliable
+account of the country, and he appears at first to
+have found it profitable to make voyages thither.
+The animals, and not the vegetables, engaged his
+attention, and he would have made a remunerative
+business of it had not first pirates and then privateers
+despoiled him of his ships, and outfits, and
+wares.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> <cite>Journals of George Cartwright.</cite></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>In Labrador now, work as he may, one man
+cannot keep the wolf from the door—the Eskimo
+and natives of the coast, the mountaineer and
+hunter Indians of the interior, and the white settlers,
+are alike often face to face with starvation. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>
+two former are rapidly dying out, while among the
+latter it is only where a settler has grown-up sons
+to work with him, and a good supply of stock in
+boats, nets, traps and guns to help him, that he
+can make anything approaching to what we in
+England should consider a respectable living. Even
+with these helps, and with steady, hard work, and
+with sound health, he seldom can hope to lay up
+store against times of misfortune. True in England
+the poor often see hard times, and have to
+face occasionally poverty and hunger. Moreover,
+as Richard Whitbourne, that plucky British sea-dog,
+says,<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> “It hath beene in some winters so hard
+frozen, aboue London bridge near the court, that
+the tenderest faire ladies and gentlewomen that are
+in any part of the world, who have beheld it, and
+great numbers of people, have there sported on the
+ice many dayes, and have felt it colder there, than
+men doe here, that live in Newfoundland.” Yet we
+must take into consideration that here absolute want
+is the exception, there the rule.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Richard Whitbourne.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p>
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>NATURAL FEATURES</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Labrador</span> rocks are of the oldest
+formation (Laurentian gneiss), and destitute of remains of animal
+or plant life; so that they, too, maintain the general harmony of
+desolation. On the south shore, lower Silurian sandstones, red syenite,
+and one splendid mass of basalt, known as the “Devil’s Table,” crop
+out.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_024">
+<img src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="" width="305" height="450">
+<p class="caption center">A shoal of caplin jumping out on to the beach.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The action of ice and fire are shown
+in marvellous manners on this weird coast. Not only
+is every rock, mountain, and pinnacle crowned with
+countless boulders, which seem but to need a shake
+to set myriads tumbling down every incline, but the
+whole coast is carved and chiselled in a wondrous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>
+manner by a glacial period that lasted much longer
+than in Europe; while the fierce frost of winter has
+blasted mighty rocks, and left, wherever a resting-place
+could be found, huge fragments, jagged and
+rough, “hurled aloft, as they appear, by the hands
+of Titans.”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Packard’s <em>The Labrador Coast</em>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>That long before the ice period volcanic fires
+helped to mould the hills, is well shown by the out-crop
+here and again of trap rocks. Especially near
+the hospital at Indian Harbour is this the case,
+where the light and polished quartzite rocks are
+capped with black trap rocks which have overflowed
+them. These rocks are marked with deep half-moon
+shaped cuts, running east and west—done by ice—and
+“showing that Hamilton Inlet, which at the
+mouth is forty miles wide, was once filled with an
+enormous glacier.”<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> <em>Ibid.</em></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Near Hopedale a beautiful blue and bronze iridescent
+felspar is found. It is called labradorite,<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+and when polished glistens in the sunlight like a
+peacock’s feather. It is used for brooches, and occasionally
+for ornamenting buildings. We dropped
+anchor one night near an island almost entirely
+composed of this.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <em>Ibid.</em>, gives fuller information.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Copper pyrites, mica, asbestos, with salts of some
+of the rarer metals, such as yttrium and rubidium,
+have been found on the coast. One mining company
+works for labradorite during the summer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<p>In the inlets and along the rivers some trees and
+arctic plants are found. These are more especially
+spruces, larches, mosses, and lichens. Birches, aspen,
+silver fir, willow, cherry, and mountain ash, however,
+exist in favourable spots. I have seen good
+60 ft. spars from the end of Sandwich Bay. The
+trees get more and more dwarfed as one goes north,
+and beyond the 59th parallel the merest scrub exists.
+The botanical aspect, however, which chiefly interests
+the settlers, is the number of edible berries, which
+form a valuable addition to their articles of diet.
+These are bakeapples or cloudberries, cranberries,
+whortleberries, bilberries, tea-berries, gooseberries,
+raspberries, and currants. They are preserved in
+water, or in molasses when it is obtainable, against
+the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Very few vegetables can be grown, though with
+care, up the inlets a few potatoes, cabbages, and
+turnip tops have been raised. The Moravian missionaries
+have to cover their vegetables up at night
+to keep them warm. This lack of vegetables is
+tritely expressed in the diary of a gentleman wintering
+on the north coast; the entry describing his diet
+runs as follows—</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—— ditto.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—— ditto.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—— ditto.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—— ditto.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—— found a blade of grass. Eat the whole of it.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p>
+
+<p>Cartwright (1786) adds a list of his own of indigenous
+vegetable delicacies—</p>
+
+
+<ul><li> 1. Young osier leaves.</li>
+<li> 2. Red dock leaves.</li>
+<li> 3. Scurvy grass.</li>
+<li> 4. Alexander, or wild celery.</li>
+<li> 5. Indian salad.</li>
+<li> 6. Alpine plant.</li>
+<li> 7. Fathen.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>There is a charming catholicity about this old sea-dog
+and trapper.</p>
+
+<p>The tips of the young spruce branches are used
+for making a non-intoxicating beer, being boiled
+with molasses. When other tea gives out, the leaves
+of <em>uva ursi</em> are used. These are known as Labrador
+tea.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ledum latifolium</i> is also called Labrador tea.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The Saga of Lief Erikson thus describes a conversation
+between the Viking and his old henchman
+Tyrker, who, for two or three days, had wandered
+from the party: “Why wert thou so late, my fosterer,
+and separated from the party?” “I have not
+been much further off, but still I have something
+new to tell of: I found grapes and vines.” “But is
+that true, my fosterer?” quoth Lief. “Surely is it
+true,” replied he; “for I was bred up where there
+is no want of either vines or grapes.” They said
+that next day they <em>filled their long boat</em> with grapes.
+But we must, I fear, consider this a “traveller’s
+licence,” as we must also when old Richard Whitbourne
+describes the wild berries of Newfoundland.
+“There the summer naturally produceth out of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>fruitful woombe of the earthe, without the labour of
+man’s hand, great plenty of greene pease and fitches
+faire, round, full and wholesome ... great store
+of hay also.... Then have you here strauberries
+red and white, and as faire rasberries and
+gooseberries as there be in England; as also multitudes
+of bilberries, which are called by some whortes,
+and many other delicate berries, which I cannot
+name, in great abundance.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Peares,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sowre cherries,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Filberds,</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>of which divers times eating their fill, I never heard
+of any man whose health was thereby any way impaired.”</p>
+
+<p>The rivers contain salmon for about one month
+in the summer. These seem, however, to be very
+susceptible to cold, and are seldom taken north of
+Hopedale. In seasons when the drift ice remains
+long on the coast the number of salmon caught is
+always largely diminished. They seldom take a fly.
+On the other hand the trout are very voracious,
+very large and numerous, and will rise at any bait.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+They remain all the year, and are easily caught in
+winter by cutting a hole in the ice and letting down
+a hook with a bit of raw meat. The women largely
+replenish their larder in this way. Cod are far and
+away the most important of all Labrador products
+at present—they are called “fish,” and even in legal
+terms are the only denizens of the sea recognised as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>
+“fish.” In summer they come into shallow water,
+first in pursuit of a small fish known as “caplin,”
+and then remain probably to spawn before seeking the
+deeper water in winter. It is unlikely that in their
+migrations they cross any large portion of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> There is a large salmon-trout fishery at Ungava.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The caplin come to the shallow water in countless
+myriads to spawn. They are somewhat like a
+sardine, only a little larger. At times they blacken
+the water, and so crowd one another as they swim
+along the very edge of the water in calm weather
+that every ripple of the sea leaves numbers struggling
+on the strand, till at times the whole beach is
+hidden by dead and dying fish. Further north these
+caplin visit the shore later in the year. They are
+followed always by immense numbers of cod. I
+have seen cod also so thick that even in deep water
+there seemed no room for them, their backs being
+constantly out of water. This is called the “caplin
+school,” and on the catch of cod during their visit
+the success of a whole fishery will depend.</p>
+
+<p>While the “caplin school” lasts the most intense
+excitement exists. The men will work day and
+night, with scarcely an hour in twenty-four for
+sleep, even eating their meals in their boats. The
+cod at this time will not take bait, and are caught
+in traps in the way described in a subsequent
+chapter, or are hauled in a huge seine, by which a
+“school” is surrounded. Alas, sometimes so many
+icebergs are driven inshore, that the precious time
+slips by without any opportunity of fishing, though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>
+all the men, with boats and gear, are waiting on
+shore in the greatest anxiety to be “up and at the
+fish.” The caplin are sometimes smoked and kept
+for food, but usually are dried on the rocks for dog
+food in winter. Messrs. Munn, of Harbour Grace,
+have tinned them like sardines, and they are then
+excellent eating. The sea also affords “hair” seals;
+these are caught in nets in the fall of the year, or
+are shot swimming in the bays in summer time.
+Whales are common on the coast, but the people
+now have no means of taking them. I saw two
+small right-whales which had been washed up on
+the beach, and also one very large sperm whale.
+Fourteen hundred gallons of oil was taken from his
+head. So long ago as the 15th century, before the
+discovery of America, Basque whalers are said to
+have fished these waters. In the far north, at Ungava,
+the Hudson’s Bay people make a regular
+attempt to intercept the large schools of porpoises.
+At times they will get as many as 150, some individuals
+weighing a ton each. They are used for
+their skin and fat, and their flesh for dog food.
+This is put raw into old flour barrels, and then
+buried in the ground, usually in June, and in
+October it will be dug up again. Decomposition
+will have made the flesh swell up, and the barrels
+will have burst. As, however, the whole is now
+frozen, the wood can be removed, and the barrel-shaped
+masses of frozen and unsavoury flesh are
+stored away for the dogs’ repasts.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>OF THE BIRDS AND LARGER FISHES</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_031">
+<img src="images/i_031.jpg" alt="" width="326" height="500">
+<p class="caption center">Iceberg in August off Tub Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Herrings</span> were once in great numbers on
+the coast, and were so much larger and fatter than our English herring,
+that at times knaves have found it worth while to imitate the “Labrador
+Herring” brand. Of late years they have failed almost entirely to
+visit the coast, and fishery stations have had to be abandoned where
+once the sea was “dry with fat herring.” As many as 4,000 barrels have
+been surrounded with the seine at one shoot of the net. The only other
+common fish is the sculpin, pig-fish, or grubby. He is a voracious<span
+class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> scavenger, and, in foul
+companionship with his friend the flounder, may be seen sweltering on
+the rotting heaps of offal which surround every Labrador fish-stage. He
+appears to have no feelings, but one all-absorbing idea—“to swallow”
+with his stupendous mouth. I have caught on the sharp-pronged jigger,
+when fishing for “tom-cod” for breakfast, the same sculpin three times
+in succession, until for self-protection it was necessary to club him
+with a rowing pin.</p>
+
+<p>The sleeper shark also infests the coast, and in
+hundreds gather to devour the dead bodies of the
+baby seals left by the sealers in the spring. It has
+a callous nature, and Scoresby tells us, on one occasion
+while one was feeding on a dead whale, and
+scooping out at each bite pieces as large as a man’s
+head, a sailor pierced it through with a scythe
+knife. It took little notice, however, and went on
+feeding in exactly the same spot. Mackerel appear
+in the straits of Belle Isle only.</p>
+
+<p>Two series of submarine banks lie off the Labrador
+shores, over which it is shallow enough to fish with
+small boats and hand lines. These have been estimated
+to cover an area of over 7,000 square miles.
+Over these the northern current spreads countless
+animalculæ, in the form of a vast ocean of living
+slime. This food attracts the bait fishes especially,
+and they, in turn, attract the cod. No doubt also,
+this is the attraction to the numerous whales, whose
+loud “blowing,” as they laze along in the sunshine<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>
+or hunt fish for their livelihood, alone breaks at
+times the death-like silence in the lonely bays and
+inlets. A large sperm whale, 70 feet long, was
+towed into Battle Harbour our first year. This
+variety has large teeth, which are used by ivory
+cutters. A Captain Clarke, writing in 1766, narrates
+how a sperm whale charged one of his boats; it
+struck the bow with such violence that it threw his
+son, who was harpooning, some feet into the air. The
+whale turned and caught him in her devouring jaws
+as he came down. He was heard to scream, and
+part of his body was seen hanging out of its mouth,
+when it “sounded.” A small but beautiful whale,
+“as white as a sheet,” is common on the coast. I
+have seen it caught in cod-traps. Its skin makes
+excellent leather. The hump-back whale, and more
+rarely the right-whale are also to be seen. The
+ferocious “thresher” whale also visits us. It has
+terrible teeth, and one variety has also a huge back-fin,
+six feet high, with which the fishermen say they
+have seen it beating its prey to death.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Captain
+Scammon tells us of an attack by three threshers
+on a huge cow-whale and her baby in a bay. “Like
+wolves they flew at her throat, dragging her under
+water, the others charging at her and leaping right
+over her. At last they killed the baby, and when
+it sank kept diving down and coming up with large
+pieces of its flesh. Meanwhile, the poor mother<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>
+made her escape, leaving a long track of blood
+behind her.” I have fired from my boat at the
+grampus, but without success. Mr. Mackenzie, of
+the Hudson Bay Company, however, told me he was
+once standing up in his small boat, waiting for a
+seal, when he saw a grampus rising to the surface
+alongside. As its head emerged from the water, he
+fired straight at the blow-hole, with the result that
+the single explosive ball penetrated the animal’s
+brain, and he rolled over dead without a struggle.
+Not an unfortunate issue as far as the small boat
+was concerned.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Goode’s <em>United States Fisheries</em>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Pliny speaks of a whale 960 feet long! Another
+traveller’s license I fear. A hundred feet is, as far
+as I know, an outside limit. The whale-bone hangs
+from the roof of the mouth, is short in front and
+behind, and is at best some six feet long. It is
+scythe-shaped, and edged with long coarse fibres,
+which sweep over the huge soft tongue, filtering off
+the slime on which these whales live. Three hundred
+and fifty pieces are found on each side.</p>
+
+<p>The narwhale, with his long tusk, eight feet long,
+with which he pokes up the sea grass on which he
+feeds, was once common on this coast. Some say
+he uses the tusk to bore holes through the ice, and
+so get air to breathe. The tusk is really an incisor
+tooth, or two incisor teeth enormously prolonged,
+and twisted round one another. Where no wood is
+found the Eskimo hang their tents on these ivory
+rafters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_035">
+<img src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="455">
+<p class="caption center">My first Caribou, and Guide.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span></p>
+
+<p>The sword-fish is a doubtful visitor, though he
+is taken off Greenland and on the American coast.
+Many are the authentic accounts of ships he has
+attacked and even sunk.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> He will weigh as much
+as 600 lbs., and Professor Owen says, “he strikes
+with the accumulated force of fifteen double-handed
+hammers, and its velocity is equal to that of
+swivel shot.” In 1864 one, for which a sailor was
+angling, stove a hole through the bottom of the
+ship <em>Dreadnought</em>, and so “the insurance company
+had to pay £600 because an ill-tempered fish objected
+to be hooked, and took revenge by running
+full tilt against copper sheathing and wood planking.”
+Also in 1864 Captain Atwood took from the
+stomach of a large shark a full-sized sword-fish,
+but the shark’s skin was pierced with a dozen
+holes, showing how much the dainty morsel had
+objected to being swallowed. Hanging with the
+armour of Christopher Columbus at Siena, in Spain,
+is a sword of this fish, said to be “taken from a
+<em>warrior</em> they slew on nearing America.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Goode’s <em>United States Fisheries</em>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The fowl of the air are a most important factor
+in Labrador life. Among many land birds that do
+occur, far the most important are the willow grouse
+and the spruce partridge. The former are large
+birds, tawny red in summer, and white as driven
+snow in winter.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> At that season many depend on
+these birds to keep them from starvation, and even
+when a settler’s ammunition has all run out, he can
+sometimes noose them with string on the end of a
+long stick as they roost in the trees, so tame are
+they. Like Alexander Selkirk’s animals—</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> The willow grouse very rarely take to the trees, the spruce
+partridge almost always.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">“They are so unacquainted with man</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Their tameness is shocking to me.”</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span></p>
+<p>A covey in a tree can be killed right out, if shot
+from the bottom upwards, so that the falling bird
+does not disturb the rest. A common entry of Cartwright’s<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
+is, “Saw a covey of six grouse. Knocked
+off all their heads with my rifle.”<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Cartwright’s <cite>Journals</cite>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> To economize powder, the settlers frequently shoot
+these birds with bows and arrows. The arrows are club-headed.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The willow grouse in heavy weather bury themselves
+in the snow, only the cock bird, who acts as
+sentry, keeping his head above ground to watch for
+an enemy. Besides these “spruce” grouse, thrushes,
+American robins, warblers, redpoles, snow buntings,
+sparrows, larks, woodpeckers, crows, hawks, and
+owls occur. The snowy owl is an exquisite white
+in winter, brown in summer, and a large bird. The
+jay, also, is very common, filling the woods with its
+cries. Now and again the beautiful gyrfalcon is
+seen, whilst the osprey, or sea eagle, also breeds on
+the coast. All these birds are American varieties,
+and differ slightly from our British species.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great wealth of sea-birds, and until the
+last two years the arctic curlew ranked first among
+these. I fear in Labrador we class all our animals
+in a descending order, with the flesh-pot as the
+basis. These curlew came north, in flocks which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>
+nearly darkened the air, in September, feeding on
+the numerous berries, and returned south in October.
+The last three years they have almost disappeared.
+The settlers say that, owing to their depredations on
+the American cornfields, poisoned wheat was laid
+out for them, and this led to their wholesale destruction.
+Their annual visit can be ill spared indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps one should mention next the Canada
+goose. Great numbers of these breed near the great
+lakes or ponds. They are largely graminivorous,
+and therefore do not combine the flavours of fish and
+flesh, which we find so unpleasant in the gulls and
+divers. It is usual, however, to catch these when
+young, and confine them in bounds, for in this way
+not only is the flesh rendered much sweeter to the
+palate, but since they grow very tame, they are used
+as decoys for other geese. One man last year anchored
+out by one leg his tame decoy goose, and so
+shot no less than thirty other geese. But, in his
+anxiety for more, unwittingly left his pet too long
+in the water, with the result that it died of cold;
+and so the goose with the golden—or in this case
+“feathered”—eggs was lost. It shows these birds
+do feel the cold. It is not waste to shoot a hundred
+geese the same day, for it is only necessary to hang
+them up in rows outside the house on nails, and they
+will remain frozen and fresh all winter.</p>
+
+<p>Both eider ducks and the king eiders abound on
+the coast. In huge flocks early in November they
+come to the south’ard, generally with a north-east<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>
+wind, and then in quick succession flock after flock,
+taking almost all exactly the same line. Near
+Battle hospital is a barren, rocky point known as
+“Gunning” Point. Here, under the above circumstances,
+you can always find some half-dozen
+“Livyeres,” with long guns and dogs, waiting for the
+flocks. It is difficult to say whether the dogs or the
+guns are most remarkable. I measured one gun, six
+feet two inches long, and when it was discharged it
+was always an open question which end of it would
+do most damage, for the adventurous hunter always
+loaded it “ten fingers” deep. When a flock pass,
+all the guns are discharged simultaneously, and the
+ducks, which at times respond in showers, are nominally
+divided equally.</p>
+
+<p>But now comes the excitement. As a rule a huge
+Atlantic surf, with these north-east winds, breaks
+over the point, and the splendid pluck and endurance
+of the dogs is taxed to the uttermost. Dashing into
+the waves, I have seen them repeatedly hurled back,
+bruised and winded, high on to the ledges of rock,
+only to be dragged off by the return wave and once
+more pounded on to the rocks. To avoid this, the
+brave beasts hold on with the energy of despair, and
+many times have I noted their bleeding paws, and
+nails torn off in the unequal struggle. Yet they
+would at once return to the charge, and, waiting
+their chance, leap right over the breaking crest, and
+so get clear of the surf. Once they have seized a
+duck they never let it go, and I have often felt sorely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>
+tempted even to jump in and give the brave creatures
+a hand, when it seemed impossible for them to keep
+up the struggle any longer. Yet, after being lost to
+view, engulfed by a huge breaker, one would see
+soon a duck appear, and after it a dog’s head, still
+true to its hazardous duty. Sometimes, however,
+they are really lost.</p>
+
+<p>Petrels, loons, divers, gulls, guillemots, widgeon,
+teal, scoters, puffins, shanks, sandpipers and other
+waders abound. These are shot in the fall, and
+salted down for future consumption. Their eggs are
+also collected for eating; and though we found even
+the eggs of the domestic hen, when allowed to feed
+on fish remains, too highly flavoured to be appetizing,
+yet I have seen healthy babies flourishing on gulls’
+eggs. Whitbourne, writing in 1612, speaks of the
+utility of the penguin—the great auk was common
+then. He says, “These penguins are bigge as geese,
+and flye not, for they haue but a short wing, and
+they multiply so infinitely upon a certain flat Iland,
+that men drive them from thence upon a boord into
+their boats by hundreds at a time; as if God had
+made the innocency of so poore a creature to become
+such an admirable instrument for the sustentation of
+man.” Then, as now, he says the “fishermen doe
+bait their hookes with the flesh,” and also that they
+were so fat that the men drew threads through under
+the skin and used them as candles.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_042">
+<img src="images/i_042.jpg" alt="" width="412" height="650">
+<p class="caption center"> Eskimo Boys.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> food purposes among land animals the
+caribou, which closely resembles the reindeer, ranks first. These roam
+over the interior in great quantities, feeding on the very plentiful
+Iceland moss. In winter they scrape away the snow with their large
+cow-like hoofs to get at it. In Newfoundland they are very plentiful in
+the interior, and Mr. W. Tyrrell of Winnipeg told me, that on the west
+side of Hudson Bay he found thousands, so tame they would eat out of
+his hands. They migrate north in summer, and south in winter, due, says
+Rae, to their “sense<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> of
+polarity,” but I should presume in search of food. They are difficult
+to find in the woods, for the colour of their skins varies with the
+seasons, and always closely resembles their surroundings. Unfortunately
+they are too far inland for the majority of settlers to reach.</p>
+
+<p>The stags have magnificent antlers, which are
+especially fine about October, the rutting season.
+With these they fight fiercely, going down on their
+knees, and striking with the powerful brow-antlers.
+I have seen several pairs of “locked horns” that
+have been picked up, the poor creatures having got
+these fixed and died side by side of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>A hunter this fall, having skinned a young stag
+he had killed, put the skin over him so that the
+horns, which were attached, came on his head. He
+then walked out towards a herd of does, over which
+a fine stag was keeping zealous watch as they
+grazed on the open marsh. They allowed him to
+come within range, and then the stag, mistaking
+him for a rival, actually charged down upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Polar bears are not uncommon, and five were
+killed this season near Cape Chidley. Captain
+Blandford, of the <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Neptune</em>, told me that, having
+sent some men ashore for water in a strange harbour
+near Cape Chidley, they returned in great
+haste, calling for their guns, and shouting, “Bears!”
+They were soon perceived from the ship to be firing,
+shot after shot being heard in rapid succession, and
+great expectations were raised of bear steak for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>
+dinner. At last the hunters returned with downcast
+countenances. The bears proved to be only inflated
+heads, which some Eskimo were using as buoys for
+their lines.</p>
+
+<p>In one boat going out to their fish trap were seven
+men, six rowing, and the skipper standing on the
+stern seat, steering with an oar.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a large white bear was sighted swimming
+close to the boat. There was no gun on board,
+and yet the men were loath to lose so rich a prize.
+Chase was therefore given, and the skipper kept
+hurling at the bear the large two-pronged lead
+“jigger,” with a stout line attached. Each time he
+threw it the bear warded it off, striking it a smart
+blow with his fore-paw. At last one jigger came fast,
+and then another, till the bear, who seemed only
+bent on escape, and was now wearied with repeated
+diving, was hauled near the boat, and first clubbed
+with an oar, and then despatched with an axe.</p>
+
+<p>Black bears are very common. They are, as a
+rule, herbivorous, eating the wild berries, and insectivorous;
+but one night a settler I was staying with
+showed me the skin of a large bear he had just
+trapped. He was living at the mouth of a trout
+and salmon river, the entrance to which he barred
+with nets. Two bears happening to observe some
+fish struggling in the net on the surface of the
+water near the land were, I suppose, tempted to
+feloniously sample the unexpected windfall, and
+having once erred, continued their wild career. For<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>
+the settler told me they learnt regularly to come
+down and haul his nets, dragging them to the land,
+and not only eating out the fish, but severely
+damaging the nets. But punishment had been meted
+out to one in the form of a charge of buckshot, to
+the other by a steel trap.</p>
+
+<p>Cartwright thus illustrates the power of this bear:
+“We discovered this morning the damage done by
+a polar bear to a cask of oil. It was of strong oak
+staves, well secured by thick, broad hoops of birch.
+Yet with one blow of his tremendous paw he had
+snapped off the four chime hoops and broken the
+staves short off.”</p>
+
+<p>The most valuable fur animals are the fox, otter,
+beaver, mink, marten, and lynx. Musk-rats, squirrel,
+and hares are also plentiful. The porcupine is not
+uncommon. One specimen I shot was larger than a
+sucking pig. The long black hair, which almost
+obscures the short quills, made it resemble a bear as
+it sat asleep on a bough at the top of a fir tree. A
+bullet through the head brought it down at once,
+but even when mortally wounded they will cling to
+the boughs, and you may have to fell the tree. I
+saw a dog one day worrying one. The porcupine,
+with its head well down, waited for the dog to come
+near, and then switched round his tail end, on which
+are most spikes, with lightning speed, hoping to
+leave some in his enemy’s nose. The quills are all
+barbed, so that they “work in.” In this way they
+will kill dogs, wolves, and foxes. A fox was found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>
+dead near Hopedale, its skin ruined by festering
+sores, which, on examination, showed the ends of the
+black and white quills. It is very amusing to see
+how easily it wards off an enemy by always turning
+its back to him! When the dog was tired out, the
+porcupine went up the nearest tree, had a good meal,
+and went to sleep on a bough.</p>
+
+<p>Black or “silver” fox skins are very valuable.
+For one good black skin I have known £170 given
+by a Russian nobleman. The average retail value of
+silver fox skins is nearly £50. Now the cunning of
+foxes is proverbial, but Cartwright tells us a story
+of vulpine ingenuity in a marten. One day he was
+going to travel a long distance, and desired to leave
+a deposit of food for his return journey. He feared
+to bury it, because foxes would be sure to find it, so
+climbing a tree he hung it by a string from one of
+the branches. Shortly after a marten came along,
+and espied the dainty morsel high over his head.
+Whether he had watched old Cartwright climbing,
+or whether it was an inspiration, the tale does not
+say, but in any case it climbed the tree also, gnawed
+through the string, and then, with an appetite
+whetted by the exercise, had a square meal at its
+leisure.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_047">
+<img src="images/i_047.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="500">
+<p class="caption center">A Beaver.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Walking one day through thick wood we came
+across a regular “pathway,” the trees having been
+felled to make travelling easy. A glance at the
+stumps showed that it was a road cut by beavers,
+to enable them to drag their boughs of birch along<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>
+more easily. The pathway led to a large house on
+the edge of a lake, and, fortunately for us, the beaver
+was at home. There were other houses on an island
+in the lake, and below them all a large, strong dam,
+some thirty yards long, built the shape of a half-moon,
+and below this two more complete dams across
+the river that flowed out. The dams were made of
+large tree-trunks, with quantities of lesser boughs,
+and were many feet thick, and very difficult to break
+down. The houses were built half on land, half in
+the water. The sitting-room is upstairs on the bank,
+and so is the “crew’s” bedroom, and the front door
+made at least three feet below the surface to prevent
+being “frozen out” in winter, or, worse still, “frozen
+in.”</p>
+
+<p>The whole house was neatly rounded off, and so
+plastered with mud as to be warm and weather-proof.
+This is done by means of their trowel-like
+tails, which are also of great use in swimming.
+The house was so strong that even with an axe we
+could not get in without very considerable delay.
+In the deep pond they had dammed up, we found a
+quantity of birch poles pegged out. The bark of
+these forms their winter food, and is called “browse.”
+The beaver cuts off enough for dinner, and takes
+it into his house. Sitting up, he takes the stem
+in his fore paws, and rolls it round and round
+against his chisel-shaped incisor teeth, swallowing
+the long ribands of bark thus stripped off. While
+entering the house the stick often sets off a trap<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>
+set for them. The trappers say they do this purposely.
+When surprised they retreat to holes in the
+bank, of which the entrances are hidden under water.
+These are called “hovels.”</p>
+
+<p>Beavers always work up wind when felling trees,
+and cut them on the water side, so that they fall
+into the pond if possible, and the wind helps to blow
+them home. This beaver we caught proved to be a
+hermit—at least he was living alone. He may have
+been a widower of unusual constancy. They do not
+destroy fish, their food in summer being preferably
+the stem of the water-lilies. Otters occasionally
+kill and eat beavers. When they call the beaver
+has to try and be “not at home.” Of the other
+animals I have not space to say much. The blue-grey
+hare is a large animal, and like all the others
+turns white in winter—so wonderfully does God remember
+all His creatures.</p>
+
+<p>The pretty little squirrel is very tame. Like a
+good sensible fellow he makes round holes in the
+ground, and hides enough berries for his “winter
+diet.”</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Labrador is rigorous in the extreme,
+in spite of the fact that in summer, especially
+in the inlets, the thermometer sometimes registers
+75° and even 80° F. Icefields from Baffin’s Bay and
+Davis Strait block the coast from October to June,
+the sea freezing entirely over all along the shore.
+Over this all the winter travelling is done, but sometimes
+the commotion below so moves the ice up and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>
+down that a team of dogs with their sledge will only
+move backwards when a swell arises. The average
+temperature all the year round is at Hopedale 27° F.,
+at Nain 22·5° F., that is a mean average temperature
+of 5° and 9·5° respectively of frost. During the
+months the sea is open, countless islands of ice are
+driven all along the coast, while snowslips often
+make the land dangerous. A settler, his two sons,
+and son-in-law were ascending the slope of an island
+near Sandwich Bay to witness the first break-up of
+the ice in spring, when an avalanche of snow buried
+all but one son, who was a few yards behind the
+rest. Rushing to where he saw his father last, and
+tearing away the hard-frozen snow with hand and
+foot, he came eventually on his father’s head, four
+feet below the surface. Though his father heard the
+son searching, he could neither stir nor shout to
+guide him, from the weight of snow over him. This
+man told me the sad story. The other two lads
+were lost.</p>
+
+<p>Storms of exceptional violence and of sudden onset
+occasionally visit the coast. The wind seems to blow
+from all quarters at once, hurling clouds of sea-water
+as dust, often mixed with icy spicules, far over the
+land. A few years ago a vessel in Black Tickle,
+lying at anchor near Gready, was carried up and left
+on the rocks twenty feet above high-water line; at
+the same time £4,000 of damage was done, in that one
+harbour alone, by all the stages with the summer’s
+voyage of fish and all the boats being suddenly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>
+washed away. It was then October, and snow was
+on the ground. All the survivors left as soon as
+possible. On returning next year an old man of
+this vessel was found dead beneath the snow, his
+hands crossed, his eyes bandaged. Evidently he had
+laid himself out for burial. On October 9, 1867, in
+one of these sudden gales, forty vessels were hurled
+on the rocks. Forty poor souls lost their lives, and
+fifteen hundred people were cast ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Again on October 26, 1885, in a similar hurricane
+80 vessels were lost, 70 lives, and 2,000 men, women,
+and children left on the coast. The Newfoundland
+Government had to send up special steamers to
+bring these people home.</p>
+
+<p>Easterly gales especially, as the water is deep,
+heave in a most wonderful ground-swell. Close to
+the land, I have in our little steamer been so low
+down in these great watery valleys, that, standing
+on deck, we could not see even the tops of the hills
+over the crest of the next wave. Admiral Bayfield
+says, “It bursts with fury right over islands thirty
+feet in height, sending sheets of foam and spray,
+sparkling in the sunbeams fifty feet up the sides of
+precipices.”</p>
+
+<p>One feature, however, of rare beauty is peculiar
+to these Arctic regions. I mean the Aurora Borealis.
+At times one radiant crown circles the zenith;
+at others, vast columns of light advancing across
+the heavens keep changing shape like battalions of
+men attacking, the varying uniforms of these flying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>
+squadrons resplendent with every shade of violet,
+red and gold; at others deadly pale phantoms creep
+ghost-like upwards from the northern horizon, till
+the whole space overhead is filled with quivering
+rays. Icebergs, till now invisible, reveal their baneful
+presence; but almost before the sailor has time
+to note their bearings, these transient glories are
+suddenly extinguished, and the sea and sky are once
+more plunged into darkness, all the more death-like
+for the contrast, so that men call it, “The dead at
+play.” The weird mirage also serves to add mystery
+to these regions. Often have we seen huge icebergs
+as if capsized, and hovering in the waves of ether
+over the stern realities below, as though kissing
+them and rejoicing in their power for evil.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_054">
+<img src="images/i_054.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="467">
+<p class="caption center"> Mountaineer Indians on the <em>Sir Donald</em>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK</em></p>
+
+
+<p>ON June 15, 1892, the good ship <em>Albert</em>, 97 tons
+register, and 151 displacement, was towed out
+of Great Yarmouth Harbour, and amidst many farewells
+from wharves, quays and piers, spread her
+canvas for her first transatlantic voyage. Trimmer
+ship never left port bound on such a journey. Stout
+timbers, teakwood decks, iron hatches, new running
+gear—nothing had been forgotten—and in light airs
+of summer or whole gales in winter, I want no
+snugger vessel. The four voyages made by her at
+present, under the care of Captain Trezise and his
+crew of eight men, certainly deserve notice here.</p>
+
+<p>1892. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St.
+Johns, Nineteen days.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span></p>
+
+<p>Bound home. From St. Johns to Start Lighthouse.
+Twelve days.</p>
+
+<p>1893. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St.
+Johns. Seventeen days.</p>
+
+<p>Bound home. From St. Johns to Great Yarmouth.
+Twelve and a half days.</p>
+
+<p>Our best twenty-four hours’ work was 240 miles,
+registered on two harpoon logs. The fact that we
+registered under 100 tons, allowed us to carry
+an uncertificated mate—Skipper Joe White, so
+well known in the North Sea. It also made my
+certificate as a competent master of some practical
+use. After visiting the mission vessel <em>Edward Birkbeck</em>,
+at work among Manx and Irish fishermen off
+the south-west coast of Ireland, we followed the
+course taken by Cabot in his caravel, the <em>Matthew</em>,
+nearly 400 years ago, and made a landfall directly
+opposite St. Johns Harbour. Here a scene of the
+wildest confusion greeted us. The prosperous city we
+expected to see had been almost blotted out by fire;
+and still amidst the ruins of churches, public buildings
+and private dwellings, smoke and flames arose in
+all parts of the city exultant and unsubdued, looking
+at night-time like glutted vultures over their helpless
+prey. Warehouses, wharves, and even vessels
+at anchor, had shared the same fate, so that landing
+at all was a difficult matter at first. In the streets,
+here and there, were disconsolate groups of men, excavating
+from tons of fallen masonry, safes which
+had proved none too safe, and which, lying burnt,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>
+battered, and discarded at intervals, served to enhance
+the sense of general desolation.</p>
+
+<p>From the harbour the first appearance suggested
+the ruins of Pompeii, for the wooden houses of 12,000
+people had gone up in smoke, leaving only rows of
+blackened and scorched pillars rising from the
+charred debris. On closer inspection, however, the
+illusion was dispelled, for the pillars proved to be
+tottering brick chimneys, with two or three half-destroyed
+fire-grates above one another, the whole
+being topped by most prosaic cracked chimney-pots.
+Queer things had happened in the general panic.
+Patients who had lain in bed for years “arose and
+walked.” Barrels of dry goods were rolled pell-mell
+into the harbour, whence they were subsequently
+fished out. Merchants gave general leave to bystanders
+to save what they liked from their shops.
+Church pews were packed with heterogeneous goods
+and chattels, which only served to add to the conflagration
+when the sanctuary itself fell a victim
+to the all-devouring flames. Title deeds, recent
+enactments of parliament, ledgers, valuable manuscripts,
+were destroyed in scores; while, as the fire
+occurred just before tea-time, thousands found themselves
+houseless, hungry, dusty and “smoke-dried”
+by morning. To meet these sudden needs every
+available building was thrown open for shelter,
+while weak tea and light refreshments were served
+out, in every variety of pot, kettle, and cauldron
+available, by cabinet ministers from the steps of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>
+Government buildings. The respected premier was
+to have been seen at an early hour of the morning
+with a background of blazing houses, in a most
+precarious position astride an angular roof, putting
+out burning embers as they fell. Nor did the
+flames cry “Quarter” to the episcopal apron, even
+his lordship escaping coatless. It was said that
+a jeweller, who had at the last moment sent his
+assistant to put valuables in the safe, found on
+opening it afterward a dust brush and an old matchbox
+only. One man was noticed skurrying up the
+hill with a feather mattress on his back, all unconscious
+it was brightly burning; while one, like
+another Nero over another Rome, was seen playing
+a piano in the open street, that had been hastily
+deposited there by its flying owner. The musical
+tastes of the community were impressively brought
+out by the fact that some dozen “borrowed” pianos
+were rescued from houses in neighbouring villages,
+when authority was once more able to cope with
+disorder.</p>
+
+<p>Forest fires continued to rage in every direction
+for days and weeks after, till the greater part of the
+peninsula of Avalon was treeless, many country
+homesteads sharing the same fate as the city. In
+some planter cottages I visited, I found men who
+had been fighting for their lives, homes, and possessions
+for days with these forest fires. In some cases
+the women, children, and goods had been carried
+out and deposited for safety for two or three days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>
+on the edges of the great “ponds,” as the huge
+lakes all over the country are called.</p>
+
+<p>Most wise enactments on the part of the authorities
+prevented what might have led to serious riots.
+All public-houses and liquor shops were promptly
+closed, and several attempts at incendiarism were
+nipped in the bud. Yet, amidst all their own
+troubles, the Newfoundlanders found time to show
+us the greatest of kindnesses. So much so that it
+would be invidious here to particularize one more
+than another. While in St. Johns we visited every
+ship in harbour, giving away “readin’,” and finding
+out all we could about the fishermen and fisheries.
+The Hospital Mission ship, with her cargo of warm
+clothing, some of which was at once in demand,
+her medicines, and her stores of healthy literature,
+spoke practically of warm hearts in the old country,
+still dear to all her distant children, and served to
+prove to this, her oldest colony, that England is still
+a mother in more than name. Hundreds of all
+classes and denominations poured down to see the
+<em>Albert</em> when once her mission was understood, for
+it took time to realize that the lovely ship, with
+such admirable equipment, was really free for the
+poor and sick of bleak Labrador. A pilot having
+been provided for us in the person of Captain
+Nicholas Fitzgerald, the <em>Albert</em> sailed for Labrador.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_059">
+<img src="images/i_059.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="449">
+<p class="caption center"> The <em>Albert</em> in Bateaux Harbour.—Flags up for Service.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dense fog prevailed for four days, so that the end
+even of our own bowsprit was scarcely visible, the
+<em>Albert</em> standing accordingly well out to sea, “Brother<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>
+Foghorn” having it all his own way. On the fourth
+day we caught a glimpse of Cape Bauld, the north-east
+corner of Newfoundland, and then the impenetrable
+veil dropped again. Our only occupation
+had been our deep sea thermometer, which registered
+generally from 28-30° Fahren. in two to three
+hundred fathoms. On Sunday we once more sighted
+land. The foe had gone, and was replaced by a
+bright clear day—not a cloud in the sky, not a
+ripple on the dark blue water. Innumerable rocky
+islands and lofty headlands were visible away on
+the port bow—some showing a bright yellow from
+the mosses and lichens on them. Around us we
+could count thirty magnificent icebergs—chips from
+the eternal Arctic ice. A school of whales were
+sporting under our lee, every now and again throwing
+jets of glistening water high into the air. The
+scene to our eager eyes was one indeed of surpassing
+interest and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Our pilot’s experience was at once on trial, for
+only a very imperfect survey exists of the coast.
+And not one single landmark, lightship, buoy, or
+distinguishing mark exists to aid the mariner anywhere
+along this dreary coast, a lack not remedied
+by the luxuriance of fogs and icebergs. It stood
+the test well. He pronounced the spot “Roundhill
+Island.”</p>
+
+<p>After passing through a precipitous rocky entrance,
+half closed by a stranded mountain of ice, on
+which the long swell of the Atlantic was thundering,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>
+we dropped anchor off a long narrow creek,
+round which our glasses revealed rude fishing stages
+and mud huts. The name of the harbour was
+Domino.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes was long enough to bring several
+small boats alongside, with eager inquiries as to who
+this strange vessel might be! Where was it bound?
+what was its errand? while a few more minutes
+saw us being swiftly rowed ashore to come and see
+G—— who had been “bad all summer.”</p>
+
+<p>Soon I was sitting in a tiny, dark mud hut, with
+neither glass in the hole that served for light and air,
+nor a chimney to carry up the smoke from the fire
+on the floor, through the large hole in the roof
+intended for its escape. A groaning man sat doubled
+up on a rude bench in a dark corner of the room,
+while his wife endeavoured to restrain the super-abundant
+energy of a crowd of children. “Been ill
+long?” I asked, after the usual greetings had been
+exchanged. “About three weeks. Wish I could
+get home. There’s no chance for a sick man up
+here.” Evidently he did not yet grasp the idea of
+our hospital ship. “Well, we’ll see what can be
+done,” and the case was inquired into, and found to
+my joy to be one for which relief could, by care,
+be obtained. After some further talk, in which one
+or two fishermen joined, who had entered during
+the examination, we had a few words of prayer for
+God’s blessing on the means used, and left for the
+ship, leaving behind us, for the <em>Albert’s</em> first evening<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>
+in Labrador, at least one poor heart grateful—and
+thoughtful. A hearty service aboard and many
+minor cases of sickness closed the day. Daylight
+again saw boats alongside the <em>Albert</em>, and we were
+called to visit a poor Eskimo dying from consumption.
+He had been brought from an island four days before,
+and was lying in a lonely hut, hoping some day that
+he would be well enough to get aboard the mail
+steamer for advice.</p>
+
+<p>The poor house was indeed ill-calculated for a
+dying man—ill-ventilated, ill-lighted, and dirty—with
+little clothing, and still less food, semi-starvation
+was rapidly hastening on the end. Oh, for a
+clean bed, a nurse, a hospital, to put such cases in,
+was the whole talk over tea that evening. All was
+done that could be. Food, medicine, and some warm
+clothing were taken him; but ere the <em>Albert</em> came
+south again, death had claimed the poor fellow for
+its victim, and closed the sad scene of human suffering;
+and the valley of shadows had been crossed
+without the knowledge of a Saviour, who takes
+away all its sting. At whose door will this fault
+be laid? Not more than once a year does the sound
+of the glad tidings of God’s grace reach Spotted
+Island, the home still of some fifty persons.</p>
+
+<p>To avoid repetition, I must now content myself
+by giving a general description of the people of
+this coast and their methods of earning a living.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_064">
+<img src="images/i_064.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="502">
+<p class="caption center"> Hudson Bay Company’s Post, Rigolette.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>DO PEOPLE LIVE IN LABRADOR?</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Do</span> people live in Labrador? There is a resident
+white population of some 5,000 at least, scattered
+along the south and east coasts. They call
+themselves “Livyeres.” North of these are Eskimos,
+and in the interior Indians, known locally as “Mountaineers,”
+but actually they are different branches
+of the old Algonquin race. The last returns were as
+follows:—</p>
+
+<table><!--  style="width:60%" -->
+
+<tr>
+    <td>White population of St. Lawrence coast</td>
+    <td class="right">4,411</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>White population of Atlantic coast</td>
+    <td class="right">2,416</td>
+  </tr>
+<tr>
+    <td>Eskimo on the coast</td>
+    <td class="right">1,700</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indians of the interior</td>
+    <td class="right">4,000</td>
+  </tr>
+<tr>
+    <td class="right" colspan="2">——————</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+    <td>Total</td>
+    <td class="right">12,527</td>
+  </tr>
+<tr>
+    <td class="right" colspan="2">——————</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span></p>
+
+<p>These Indians, who once held North America from
+the “Rockies” to the sea, have steadily decreased
+in numbers. As they live by hunting only, the extensive
+forest fires, and depletion of fur-bearing
+animals, have driven them further and further west.
+Whole encampments have been reported “found dead
+from starvation.” Only occasionally do they visit
+the coast, bringing furs with them to trade with
+the Hudson Bay Company. They never take to sea
+fishing.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimo, of Mongolian origin, at one time
+were as far south as Newfoundland. In 1780 a
+tribe 500 strong still dwelt along the Straits of
+Belle Isle. Now almost all are north of Hamilton
+inlet; of these I shall speak later.</p>
+
+<p>Whence do the whites come? Some are said to
+be descendants of those who fled the old country in
+press-gang days. In 1780 we hear of a crew of convicts
+sent out there. Some are descendants of sailors
+wrecked on the coast, or of Newfoundland and other
+fishermen who have been left there. More come
+from those who have gone out in the service of the
+Hudson Bay Company, while some few have emigrated
+directly there. The largest settlement consists
+of about 100 persons, and with the people of neighbouring
+coves numbers about 350. It is here where
+the mission has built the first hospital ever known
+in Labrador. In May or June every year the
+coast is visited by from 20 to 25,000 fishermen,
+women and children. These arrive as soon as the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>
+ice is blown off the coast by westerly winds. Most
+are from Newfoundland, some from Canada, with
+occasional Americans buying fish. They come in
+every variety of vessel—small and large, good, bad
+and indifferent—mostly of the schooner type. They
+number about 1,000. Besides the crew, which varies
+from five to ten men, with one or two women, most
+Newfoundland vessels bring a number of people
+called “freighters.” These are landed at various
+harbours, where they have left mud huts and boats
+the previous year, and where they will fish all summer.
+The fish is “made” or cured in Labrador, and
+sent in large vessels to the Mediterranean, Brazilian,
+or English markets. Meanwhile, the schooner has
+gone further north in search of a “fare” of fish. If
+successful, the fish will be salted, and brought home
+“wet,” so that these vessels are called “green-fish
+catchers.” As they come south they call for their
+“freighters,” with their goods and chattels, who pay
+25 cents per head per cwt. of fish caught in return
+for their passage. The overcrowding on some of
+these vessels returning is very great, and is made
+worse by the fact that every year more vessels go
+than return. Besides the cargo of fish, casks of oil,
+nets, boats, and general goods, perhaps thirty, forty,
+or fifty men and women will be crowded into these
+small vessels, at times with only room to lie down
+in the hold between the deck and the cargo. On
+one small schooner of nineteen tons we counted fifty
+people, thirty-four men and sixteen women. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>
+women, many of whom have children with them, are
+often very bad sailors. As a rule, they are not
+allowed on deck except in port, and this voyage is a
+nightmare all summer to numbers. They are pillars
+of pluck, many of these women. They can handle
+an oar and sail a small boat with the best, and
+among them are “Grace Darlings” only wanting an
+opportunity. They work chiefly at cleaning fish and
+keeping the huts for the men, though some, I think
+very wrongly, form part of the crews of the green
+fish catchers. The Canadian schooners are larger—carry
+about eighteen men and no women. The
+people consider Labrador very healthy, which I attribute
+to their comparative immunity there from
+epidemic diseases. The damp mud huts, often filled
+with snow till the very day they go in, the entire
+absence of any sanitary provisions, combined always
+with either cold draughts or too little ventilation,
+have, without any doubt, an ill effect on the people,
+but more especially on the women, who occupy them.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_067">
+<img src="images/i_067.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="415">
+<p class="caption center"> Fields of Fish Drying—Emily Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fishermen are tall men, and broad to match,
+born to the sea, and are accustomed, from their
+training at the seal fishery on the ice, to be quick
+and active. No lighthouse, no buoy, no landmark
+aid navigation on the Labrador coast. The charts
+are old, bad, incorrect, incomplete and unreliable,
+while north of Hamilton inlet, <em>where nearly all the
+schooners go for green fish</em>, there is practically no
+chart at all, most of the surveying having been done
+by the keels and bilges of devoted fishing schooners.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>
+Streams of icebergs, floating all the summer to the
+southward before the polar current, render it always
+unwise to stay at sea at night. With sudden calms
+and baffling winds from high perpendicular cliffs,
+making a harbour without a tug is always hard
+enough; but here, in addition, the constant and dense
+fogs make it often impossible, without any kind of
+guide, even to find a harbour at all; for in places
+shoals and ledges run out twenty miles to seaward.
+Yet for all this shameful neglect on the part of the
+Newfoundland Government, the weak defence is
+constantly made, “Not many lives are lost.” That I
+know to be due solely to the consummate seamanship
+and daring perseverance of the fishermen. Among
+many good vessels, many are bad, and, worse still,
+are provided with but bad tackle and holding-gear.
+The latter is an absolute essential, with the liability
+that exists to sudden hurricanes, and I believe more
+vessels are lost in Labrador from this one cause
+than all others put together. Moreover many, as I
+have already pointed out, are greatly overcrowded.
+More than once we saw vessels drifting to destruction,
+and once, when holding on ourselves for all we
+were worth, we had the pleasure of saving a comrade
+by running him a coir hawser, and so holding
+him on the verge of the rocks after his own tackle
+had given out and the crew had received brief notice
+to quit through the boiling surf.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that Newfoundland, our
+oldest colony, exists solely by its fishery; that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>
+one-third of its entire revenue is now derived from this
+very Labrador fishery, that is some one-and-a-half
+million dollars, and that in no other way could this
+harvest be reaped. Moreover almost every man in
+Labrador may be called a fisherman, and yet nothing
+is done for all their returns. Here is another method
+of interpreting the value of the industry. It is said
+seventeen tons of fish contain the nutritive value
+of 50 head of cattle, or 300 sheep. Now the average
+yield for fifty years from the French and English
+Fisheries is 2,300,000 cwt., that is 338,235 cattle, or
+2,029,410 sheep.</p>
+
+<p>The summer Labrador settlements are on islands
+or outside headlands, and here both Newfoundlanders
+and “Livyeres” dwell, the latter retiring up the
+bays and inlets, to be nearer wood and game, when
+the former return to Newfoundland. There are
+about a dozen well recognised central stations in
+Labrador, where agents representing the various
+merchants’ firms are stationed to collect the fish
+from the fishermen dealing with their firm, and to
+ship it thence to market. These men have far better
+houses than the rest, generally also a store from
+which the general wants of their men are supplied.
+As a rule, advances are made of all needful appliances
+and food to some better known fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>These men are known as “Planters,” and employ
+under them so many men and women on “share”
+or wages. Occasionally, also, the agent has some
+men of his own, working for settled wages, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>
+may be made to fish for cod, to pack salmon, to load
+vessels, or do any work they are told. When seven
+men fish one trap or seine net, the total catch is
+divided into fourteen shares—seven for the planter
+and seven for the men. That is one share each; a
+few dollars on the hundred quintals being allowed
+the skipper of the “crew.” Or when a man fishes
+his own net with four men, I saw the value divided
+into twelve shares—four for the master, four for the
+trap, and one each for the men, so that each man
+gets every twelfth fish. When hand-lining begins,
+and two men have charge of each boat, every other
+fish belongs to the men, the owner taking two out
+of four. A girl’s wages are £6 to £7 currency
+for the season, and her keep. Each planter has his
+own hut, but his men often live together. The huts
+are of logs with the chinks filled with moss and
+covered with sods. Entrance is by a low doorway,
+and there is a small window placed low down to
+prevent escape of heat. Warmth and ventilation
+cannot co-exist in so small a space. A man a little
+over a fathom long once visited Sir Donald Smith,
+when an agent on that coast. To accommodate his
+legs at night a hole had to be cut in the wall, and
+a box lined with dogskin fixed up outside. I saw
+one day a fisherman moving house. The house was
+first wedged up on piles, then a rope was put round
+it, and, with the help of a few neighbours, it was
+dragged higher up the hill. Another house I saw
+had been dragged over the harbour on the ice “to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>
+be nearer the fishing ground.” An American stove,
+or more often an open fireplace (the smoke going out
+of a huge chimney like in an Irishman’s cabin), serves
+for warmth and cooking. The stove, anyhow, is a
+movable chattel, and accompanies its master to his
+winter hut in the fall. Clothes are so expensive and
+so scanty that every man is his own wardrobe, and
+he who puts his clothes in a drawer must himself
+go naked. Thus a block of furniture is obviated.
+Bunks are put up for the men or a partition boarded
+off, while the girls sleep in a “lean-to,” called a
+“bunk-house,” or have a part partitioned off, or hang
+an old curtain in front of their bunk in the smaller
+huts.</p>
+
+<p>Some Newfoundland planters and agents provide
+boarded huts for their “crowd,” but in all the arrangements
+are much the same. The Livyeres’ families
+have all their separate huts. Each “crew” has a
+fish stage, alongside which the fish are brought in
+the boats. These stages are built out on piles driven
+into the mud. Long poles, known as “rounders,” are
+laid side by side across the tops of these, and form
+a kind of flooring. The whole is then roofed in
+with poles and sods, in order that fish-curing may
+proceed at night by costers’ lamps, or in bad
+weather. Up the middle of the stage runs a table
+for splitting the fish on. The green fish are hove
+up on to the stage with pitchforks, seized by a woman
+who cuts off the head—“the header,” and passed
+on to one who opens the throat—“the throater.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>
+She passes it to a man—“the splitter.” He, with
+great dexterity, cuts out the backbone and flings
+the flesh into a tub of water for the “washer.” I
+have timed a man split thirteen fish in one minute.
+It takes the tyro nearer thirteen minutes to split one
+well. The offal is thrown through a hole in the
+floor into the sea below, where every variety of
+scavenger fish congregates. In Norway, and by
+Messrs. Munn of Newfoundland, the skins and bones
+are made into a splendid glue, while the rest of the
+offal is preserved for fish manure. The washed fish
+is next laid in pile and salted. The “salter” is
+also a skilled mechanic. It is easy to undersalt and
+easy to “saltburn,” or oversalt, whereby much
+valuable salt is wasted. This salt comes all the
+way from Cadiz by the same vessels that take the
+fish away. Next the fish is spread in the sun. A
+fine day is waited for, and all hands turn to. Many
+a slip exists between the cup and the lip, however.
+If the fish has lain too long, it will be sodden, and
+go grey or dun. If the sun is too hot, it will be sun-burnt.
+If rain comes, and it is wet and dry again,
+too often it will be injured. It must be turned and
+returned. At last it is gathered up into circular
+“piles,” back up, and tail to the centre. These
+piles are covered over with birch rinds, and a few
+stones placed on the top to keep the whole together
+till it is time to ship them away. They are weighed
+into the ship, two quintals at a time, a “culler”
+looking over them as they pass in and classifying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
+them; and according to this classification they are
+paid for. The receipt handed to the fishermen runs
+thus:—</p>
+
+
+<p class="left"> Received from..............</p>
+
+<ul><li> Large}</li>
+<li> Medium} Merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Small}</li>
+<li> Madeira merchantable fish</li>
+<li> West India merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Talqual merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Inferior merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Damp merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Dun merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Slimy merchantable fish</li>
+<li> Labrador merchantable fish</li>
+<li> And also ...... casks of ...... gallons of oil.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>There is always a great race to get first to
+market, for the first cargo always fetches a higher
+price. One fish planter ships his own fish to England,
+and thus is able to get at times a better price
+than that offered in St. Johns. On the other hand,
+he runs the risks of the freight, insurance, etc.</p>
+
+<p>No railway, public building, roads, drains, or such
+like things exist in Labrador, and every man is a
+fisherman first, a handy man after—boat or house-builder,
+blacksmith, cooper, curer, as the case may
+be. Only three harbours do I know where liquor
+is sold: in one of these two poor fellows were
+drowned through its influence last year. No jail or
+police exist on the coast. A small revenue schooner,
+with a justice of the peace on board, is responsible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>
+for maintaining the law and preventing smuggling.
+The people are, as a rule, law-abiding; but crimes,
+especially among the half-breeds and Eskimo, go
+unpunished. In one settlement a lay reader and
+school teacher are established; in another an aspirant
+to the Methodist ministry, while settlements up
+two long inlets enjoy similar privileges. These men
+are all doing excellent work, as is a Presbyterian
+student from Dalhousie University in the Straits of
+Belle Isle.</p>
+
+<p>Most school work can be done in winter, for in
+summer only those too young to work can be
+spared; and if they are old enough to journey alone
+to and from the school, they are old enough to do
+something at the fishery. Only a small percentage
+of Livyeres can read or write. Every summer it is
+usual for a Roman Catholic priest, a Methodist
+minister, and an Anglican clergyman to visit as
+many stations as they can on the first 400 miles of
+coast. They are passed along in boats from place
+to place by the too willing people, who, irrespective
+of creed, extend their kindly hospitality to all alike.
+In places wood buildings have been put up voluntarily
+by the men in their spare time, for Sunday services,
+conducted usually by one of themselves. Our own
+gatherings, at times too large for the <em>Albert’s</em> hold
+or these little buildings, were held in fish stores
+ashore, cleared for the purpose, or in the open
+air, one of the countless boulders serving for a
+natural rostrum. I have seen the same place serve<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>
+in the morning for Church of England, in the afternoon
+for Wesleyan, in the evening for Salvation
+Army, and pretty much the same congregation attending
+each. I have known a Methodist meeting
+house on Sunday reconsecrated for Mass on Monday.
+This absence of conventionality, this socialism on a
+basis of kindly generosity, is most congenial to one
+from the old world.</p>
+
+<p>Fresh meat and vegetables are alike hard to procure.
+No cow or horse exists. The domestic animal
+world is represented only by the inevitable dog; the
+vegetable by the stringy cabbage or struggling turnip,
+whose leaves alone attain to economic value.
+To prevent scurvy in winter, when fresh fish is not
+attainable, salt meat must be avoided, even if they
+can afford to buy it. The following recipe is invented
+with that end: “Dry the cod in the sun till
+it is so hard none can go bad. In winter powder
+this, rub it up with fresh seal oil, and add cranberries
+if you have any.” This dainty is known as
+“Pipsey.” These people neither need nor expect
+luxuries; sugar and milk are very rarely used—tinned
+milk being too expensive, molasses being
+cheaper than sugar, and also margarine than butter.
+White rabbits, white grouse and sea-birds help to
+eke out the winter’s diet.</p>
+
+<p>But to be accurate, in two harbours I saw a pig,
+brought by the Newfoundlanders. When they arrived
+the dogs were banished to a desert island near.
+In one harbor we listened to much wailing. Two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>
+pigs had been isolated on an island near, the fishermen
+enjoying daily the bliss of anticipation. But
+alas! here the dogs proved equal to the occasion.
+An on-shore wind had brought them the joyful news,
+and that very morning the pigs disappeared, only
+a few blood-stained bristles remaining to tell the
+story of the crime. In one harbour a planter had
+brought a sheep, but its isolation had so developed
+its affection for its owner that it followed him everywhere,
+and he could not make up his mind to kill
+it. Goats fare a little better: they have horns.
+Yet in one place three nights in succession a goat
+had been missed. A team of runaway dogs was
+roaming near, but only approached the houses under
+cover of night. All these animals are, however, the
+perquisites of affluence, and belong almost entirely
+to the planters from Newfoundland. Some few
+bring fowls, which eke out a perilous existence on
+suffrance of the dogs. At the Hudson Bay Company’s
+station of Rigolette, Mr. Wilson, the chief factor, told
+me that two of his dogs got into his well-enclosed
+yard, and in four minutes killed eight hens and tore
+four goats to pieces. Among all these people no
+resident doctor exists, nor is skilled aid of any kind
+to be obtained in case of need; for the few minutes
+in the summer that the mail steamer stays in any
+harbour, and the irregular times of her calls, gives
+the doctor on board no opportunity to render effective
+aid. When sickness falls on the people no one knows
+what it is, or how to treat it. Not knowing they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>
+are ill, men work on till a trifling ailment becomes
+a matter of life and death. A slight accident with
+no “first aid” at hand, permanently cripples a limb
+or destroys a valuable function, such as sight.
+Bleeding unchecked from a simple wound deprives
+a dependent family of the father and breadwinner.
+Many are the piteous stories I have learnt of such
+cases since first, in 1892, the Gospel Hospital-ship
+<em>Albert</em> was sent out by warm hearts in Old England
+to their brothers and sisters in this “region beyond.”</p>
+
+<p>After all this description of Labrador, do you ask,
+as I do, why do people stay here, when the fair farm
+lands of Canada are offered free to all? There is
+a story that a solitary old woman in the wilds of
+North America was one day visited by a gentleman
+from that “hub of the universe,” Boston city. She
+asked him, “Where do you live?” “Oh, hundreds
+of miles away—in Boston.” “How do you manage
+to live so far away?” was the reply. To begin
+with, every one has a lingering belief in his “ain
+countree.” The wild life to which these people are
+born has a certain charm to others besides themselves.
+Sailors they are born and bred. What else
+can they do? Some have been taken by the Canadian
+Government to the southern side of the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence—the Arcady of Longfellow—and yet have
+found eventually their way back. The fact remains—here
+is an increasing English-speaking colony.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>JUST HOW THE FISH ARE CAUGHT</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_080">
+<img src="images/i_080.jpg" alt="" width="368" height="600">
+<p class="caption center"> Boat returning from the Trap
+full of Fish.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cod</span> (Gadus) = goad or rod fish—called
+in Norway stick or stock fish, or in Spanish “baccalhao,” in Italian
+“mazza,” a club or rod—all of which synonyms imply that a rod or stick
+is used in preserving the fish. In Norway two are tied tail to tail,
+and then slung over a stick, being then exposed to sun and air so
+many days—prescribed by law. The Eskimo largely hang them from a rod
+by the gills after splitting and salting them, but Newfoundlanders
+spread them out on poles, called “flakes,” or on the natural rocks,
+called “bournes.” But “you must first catch your hare, then cook
+him,” and seasons suitable being very brief<span class="pagenum"
+id="Page_67">[67]</span> in these Arctic climates, the most rapid
+methods must be adopted; and in cod-catching Newfoundland has eclipsed
+all her rivals.</p>
+
+<p>In spring, nets only are used, for the fish are in
+shoals, feeding on the myriads of caplin, a fish the
+size of a sardine, which are inshore then to spawn.
+The most successful net is the cod-trap. Practically
+it is a submerged parlour of net without a roof, but
+with a large door, into which the cod are invited to
+walk by a long net leading to the nearest headland
+of rock, and ending at the centre of the door. It is
+all kept in position by heavy anchors. The distance
+from the rock is from a hundred to a hundred and
+fifty yards. Cod are gregarious fish, and, like sheep,
+follow a leader. When, therefore, one comes up
+against the net as he swims near the rocks, he turns
+out into deeper water to circumvent it, and so leads
+his confiding following directly into the net. Here,
+being a platonic fish, he remains, indolently browsing
+on the infusoria and ocean slime which collect about
+the twiny walls of his prison. Suddenly a boat appears
+overhead, and a long telescope, with a plain
+glass bottom—the fish glass—is pushed down into the
+room, through which the trap-master is peering to see
+how many finny prisoners there are. Now the door
+is pulled up, and now the floor is rising—rising—rising,
+being passed along under the boat, until all the
+frightened captives are huddled together in one seething
+mass near the surface. Now a dipper is put in,
+and the jumping, struggling fish are heaved into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>
+boat. Soon the boat is full to the gunwale, and still
+there are more prisoners. Large bags of net are
+produced and filled with the rest of the fish. These,
+after being buoyed, are thrown overboard to wait till
+they are “wanted.”</p>
+
+<p>I have seen fifty to sixty hundredweight of fish
+taken in the same trap time after time. Sometimes
+more are caught than the curers can keep pace with.
+Then the fortunate trap-master allows his neighbours
+to “haul the trap,” receiving in return a small proportion
+of cured fish. Now certain positions are
+thought better than others for setting these traps,
+with the result that there is every spring a race from
+Newfoundland to get them, like our members of parliament
+race for seats. The law does not allow traps
+to be set till a certain day, and the leading net must
+be put out to secure the berth—a top hat on a bench
+is not sufficient—and unless within four days the
+whole trap is set, the claim becomes void. Thus,
+while the ice was still on the shores of Labrador, a
+steamer was sent ahead with numbers of men, each
+armed with “a trap leader,” to get ahead of the sailing
+schooners which were working their perilous way
+along inside the floe ice. In one case, after the best
+berths had thus been taken, the nets to complete the
+traps did not turn up till after the prescribed four
+days. Meanwhile another crew had pulled up their
+nets and pounced on the coveted prizes. Again,
+some men were landed with “leaders” on one station
+late at night. “No sail in sight. We’ll secure our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>
+berths to-morrow morning.” During the night, however,
+a southerly wind brought in two schooners, and
+during the hours of darkness these secured the prize
+while the others slept.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_083">
+<img src="images/i_083.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="492">
+<p class="caption center"> Snug Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The “cod-seine” ranks second in importance
+among nets in Labrador. It is of prodigious size,
+up to 60 feet deep, requiring seven men to work
+it, and is used either to bar an inlet, or to shoot
+round a shoal of cod in deep water. The seine
+master stands, fish-glass in hand, high on the bow
+of the seine skiff, as his stalwart crew, with eight
+huge pine oars, drive the boat along, perhaps hour
+after hour. The vast net is piled up on the stern,
+while one man stands on the thwarts, steering with
+his oar like an Italian gondolier. Suddenly “Easy
+all!” is cried; “Hold her up!” and the seine master
+peers down into the water with his glass. A school
+of fish is on the bottom. Swiftly the net anchor is
+dropped, and the net is paid out astern as the willing
+backs bend to the oars and force the skiff round
+and home to the starting place, marked by a gaily-painted
+buoy. Thus the whole school are enclosed.
+Now the weighted foot rope is “gathered” together,
+the net has become one vast bag, and the prisoners
+are dealt with as before, <em>i.e.</em> dipped out and bagged
+off.</p>
+
+<p>The gill net is rarely used in Labrador now. In
+Norway it is still a favourite method. Twenty to
+twenty-four nets, eighty feet long and about fifty feet
+deep, are “shot” in water of from twenty to sixty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>
+fathoms, or even in ninety fathoms, as many as
+three to four thousand cod being meshed at one
+time. Under certain circumstances nets are no use,
+<em>e.g.</em>, on the great banks, or late in the season in
+Labrador. Lines must then be used, and it is advisable
+to use bait on the hook. To us accustomed to
+row out and catch a few codling with a mussel, the
+subject of “baits” has apparently little interest.
+But out here it has become a subject of international
+importance. The fact is, mussels are too soft, coming
+off the hook too readily, and also cod are a fastidious
+fish, and will only condescend to swallow that
+“poisson” which is in season. True, it is not essential
+to bait the hooks at all. Instead you may take
+two large hooks, fix them back to back with a piece
+of lead, which will act at once as bait and sinker.
+Lower this to the bottom, and then keep jerking it
+up and down. Often you will strike fish as fast as
+you can work, using one line in each hand. This
+method, called “jigging,” eventually injures the
+fishery, probably because numbers of fish escape
+after being wounded, and others follow them, possibly
+to devour them, more than five being injured for one
+caught. The fishermen say the injured warn their
+friends, but a fish’s appreciation of pain is somewhat
+doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>Sailors have told me of sharks which, after being
+caught and having had their livers cut out, will continue
+to pursue and swallow the same piece of pork
+as long as sufficient vitality remains in them to keep<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>
+pace with the vessel; nay, even that, after being cut
+in half, the “bow end” will still wriggle after the
+bait, when the ship is becalmed in the doldrums.
+But Jack is prejudiced against sharks.</p>
+
+<p>Bait is necessary, however, in deep water, a fact
+that led the Newfoundland Government to pass the
+famous “Bait Act,” rendering it illegal to supply the
+French with bait in the hope of destroying their
+banking industry. Alas! laws are easier to make
+than enforce, and the worst sufferers were those who
+formerly made out of this supply an honest livelihood.</p>
+
+<p>Octopus and Squid is <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">facile princeps</i> among baits
+for cod. Yet the cod must be circumspect in indulging
+this weakness, and confine his attention to those
+of tender years, for these cephalopods attain to enormous
+size at times in these waters. Thus the Rev.
+Dr. Harvey (F.R.S., Canada), of St. Johns, narrates
+how, while recently two Newfoundlanders were out
+fishing in their little rowing boat, two enormous arms
+rose out of the water, seized the boat, and endeavoured
+to drag it below the surface. Fortunately
+a chopper lay at hand in the boat, and the great
+beast, after losing two of his arms, sank amidst
+volumes of black ink. The parts of arms cut off
+were nineteen feet long, and are now preserved in
+St. Johns Museum. Shortly after another was
+secured by Dr. Harvey, which had been found floating,
+dead. Its grasp embraced forty feet. Again,
+in 1772 Cartwright caught one seven feet long without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>
+head or tentacles. The beaks of these fish resemble
+a parrot’s, and in large specimens are far
+more solid than human teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Catching octopus is exciting work. A number of
+row-boats are anchored close together outside some
+point of land, and the fishermen are lazily jigging
+up and down a little bright red leaden weight, bristling
+with wire spikes. Suddenly a stir—all are
+working with might and main. A company of
+squids are passing and flying on the jiggers like
+vampires; the red weights are being grabbed voraciously.
+Beware as you get him on board. Suddenly
+he relaxes his grasp, and shoots out a jet of ink,
+which smarts considerably in one’s eyes, and leaves
+weird patterns on white linen. They swim backwards
+and at great pace after their prey. Salted
+down, these squid fetch fifteen to fifty cents per
+hundred. “Bankers” pay ten to twenty cents per
+hundred.</p>
+
+<p>Caplin I have mentioned. They are taken in fine
+meshed seine nets or in cast nets thrown from the
+shoulder like the “retiarius” of old threw his.</p>
+
+<p>Herrings form a very excellent bait. They are
+caught in gill nets anchored out in likely spots, and
+these are emptied every day. Our English drift
+nets are rendered impossible by the icebergs and
+sudden storms, with no harbour lights in case of
+emergency at night, and herring see the net in daytime.
+Herrings have been kept frozen, and then
+found to serve as excellent bait. A new way to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
+freeze these is to half fill a barrel with broken ice,
+salt and herrings, and then roll it well over and
+over. Thus a constant supply of bait at known
+places might be maintained in fixed ice houses; a
+much needed arrangement, for much time and money
+is lost by the uncertain supply of bait. Launce or
+sand eels have often to be used, but can only be
+taken on sandy bottoms, perhaps miles from a fishing
+station. Then several crews club together, and
+lend men in turns to row the bait skiff as many as
+twenty-four miles, sharing up the bait when it
+arrives. Occasionally they pay shares for a small
+launch to keep up a regular supply. White fish, a
+small fish taken in surface seines, are occasionally
+used, and also sometimes whelks.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_090">
+<img src="images/i_090.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="473">
+<p class="caption center"> Cartwright Staff.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>THE TRUCK SYSTEM</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cod</span> alone is fish in Labrador diction. Cod is the
+coin of the realm. Money is scarcely known, and
+no other medium of exchange is used by the people,
+whose <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">raison d’être</i> almost is cod. All live on goods
+advanced on credit, to be paid for by their catch of
+cod. This truck system, is the next of kin to the
+old feudal system, and has long been extinct in
+most civilized countries. It seems the early treatment
+of Newfoundland by England is partly responsible
+for the rise of this baneful system, which
+it is now difficult to remove. The struggling fisherman
+knows it is a state of bondage, but cannot get
+out of it; the merchant knows its disadvantages outweigh
+its profits; while the colony must recognise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>
+that it is alone the cause of so many of its younger
+and more energetic men leaving the country as soon
+as they can see their way to do so—for no race
+loves its country with more patriotic affection than
+do Newfoundlanders.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the end of the eighteenth century no one was
+allowed to remain in Newfoundland after the fishing
+season, each captain of a fishing vessel being held responsible,
+under heavy penalty, to bring back all his
+crew to England; while if any one did desert and
+remain behind to be near the fishing grounds, and
+to reap the harvest of the sea for his own benefit,
+his stage, and even house and goods, might be appropriated
+by the first fishing captain out next year.
+This made it only possible for fishermen to go out
+when some merchant capitalist would finance the
+voyage, who, in return, repaid himself out of the
+fish caught.</p>
+
+<p>Now many vessels were sent out, and though the
+catch of fish by any individual vessel was uncertain—for
+fish set into one place one year and another
+the next—the whole catch would generally
+repay the merchant amply. But as in some cases
+all vessels of one merchant might do badly, a large
+price was charged on goods advanced as a further
+security for the merchant, that in any case he
+might be quite sure to recoup himself for his outlay.
+And lastly, though there might be no immediate
+return in fish or cash, yet the fishermen at
+once began to accumulate a large nominal debt;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>
+and though possibly, and even probably, they would
+never be able to liquidate this, yet the fact of their
+being indebted to any particular merchant insured
+their fishing for him year after year. Thus, perhaps,
+the best issue for the merchant at settling
+time seemed in every case to be a debt by each
+man, but not large enough to make the fisherman
+despair and so fish badly. Thus the successful
+fisherman had to pay for his unsuccessful brother’s
+deficits. The fishermen soon found this out, and
+were not only soured against their suppliers, but lost
+the incentive to make any effort to discharge their
+whole debts. The merchant now found it difficult
+to make ends meet through bad debts, and was led
+to buy in the fish himself, insisting on the fishermen
+not paying in cash, but fish. Each year the
+commercial body fixed its own price for fish, punished
+those of their men who sold the fish for cash
+if they could do so, and themselves resold the fish
+in foreign markets, gaining a second profit when
+possible. Thus large nominal debts arose, which in
+hundreds of cases the men could never hope to
+liquidate. The spirit of pauperism was directly
+fostered, the men becoming absolutely dependent on
+the charity of their merchants, and in many cases
+from year to year never knowing how much they
+really owed.</p>
+
+<p>This system persists to-day, as an evil heirloom,
+dragging down both merchant and fisherman. To-morrow’s
+labour is ever mortgaged ahead for food<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>
+to-day. At last a time comes when no longer any
+hope of return from certain men can be expected.
+The advances are suddenly cut off, and these men,
+deprived of their usual source of supply, fall back on
+government relief, till to-day over one-third and
+nearly half of the whole revenue of the country is
+spent in pauper relief. The recipients are frequently
+able-bodied men, and yet they have no shame in accepting
+it, looking on the government as an independent
+source of wealth, and calling their annual
+six to twenty-four dollars “a government appointment.”</p>
+
+<p>Thus the system has played into the hands of
+idleness and dishonesty also; for though all a
+man’s catch is nominally his merchant’s, he is
+tempted to keep some part back and sell it elsewhere,
+that he may have some ready money to
+spend when he returns. Thus one man who has
+already more fish than would pay his own debt,
+will accept fish from another heavily in debt, and
+turn it in to his merchant as his own, handing
+over afterwards the money or goods he obtained in
+return to his friend, and perhaps deducting a shilling
+a quintal for the risk involved. A far more
+common way is to take and sell your fish right
+away to another firm. All are generally glad to get
+fish anyhow; for not only is it a loss to send away
+a ship without a full freight, but also there is a
+great race to get vessels away first each year, as
+the first in the market will realize a higher price<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>
+for their cargo throughout. To prevent this the
+various firms agreed at one time not to buy fish
+from another merchant’s planters. But this fell
+through, and now only a careful watch is kept on
+how much fish each man has as the season progresses,
+and the amount compared with what he delivers
+to his merchant. Any man caught alienating
+much fish would not receive any advance in future,
+though most firms are anxious to get all the men
+they can.</p>
+
+<p>The advances are made in May or early June.
+When the fish has been put on board the vessels for
+market in October, notes of credit are sent to the
+merchants thus:—</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Received from......., .... qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Labrador fish.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To Messrs. .........,&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Merchantable fish.</span><br>
+<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Per Agent.......</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Then, as soon as the total catch can be roughly
+estimated, the Chamber of Commerce meet in St.
+Johns and decide what price they will give for fish.
+The credit notes are at once cashable at that price,
+cargoes being all insured. Each firm then credits
+its planters and men with their catch at that price,
+and a balance is struck between the total and the
+amount of each one’s advance in May. If a surplus
+remains, it goes to provide the fisherman with his
+winter’s diet. Now a good catch for a fisherman is
+100 quintals of dry fish, or 300 quintals of green. On<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>
+an average 100 fish go to the quintal, that is, each
+man must catch 30,000 fish. Each quintal is worth
+in St. Johns from 2-1/2 to 3 dollars, so that 275 dollars
+is a good season, less 30 dollars for salt 245 dollars,
+or about £50. It must be remembered many will
+only average 20 quintals some years, or 50 dollars,
+not £50. The average catch per head for “bank”
+fishermen last year was 47-1/2 quintals. How often a
+man will be dependent, therefore, on charity for a
+supply of food for himself and his family during the
+winter becomes apparent.</p>
+
+<p>Often the winter’s diet that can be laid in is
+all too small for the needs of the family; and before
+the breaking up of the ice once more allows
+cod-fishing to commence, and the planters to return
+from Newfoundland, the poor Livyeres are reduced
+to living on “the landwash.” “A short feast and
+a long famine” is a coast epigram.</p>
+
+<p>Clothing is perhaps most difficult to find money
+for, and is apt to become so scanty that the settler,
+for lack of proper protection from the weather,
+cannot prosecute his fishing or hunting, especially
+where the temperature falls to 50°, or even more,
+below zero. I met one poor fellow who years before
+had missed his way home at night and had had to
+sleep out in the open. He had lost both feet from
+frost-bite. One can realize the need for woollen
+clothing. When near Winnipeg, in North Manitoba,
+I saw a young Englishman, who had been caught
+out in a blizzard, and had lost both hands and both<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>
+feet at the wrists and ankles from frost-bite. But
+a still more vicious circle is established when, to
+procure food for this winter, a settler has to part
+with his means of “killing a voyage” next summer.
+The following is a case in point as related to
+me on the spot:—</p>
+
+<p>Some three years ago, at Big Bight, a Mr.
+Olliver, with his wife and five children, had fallen
+into great poverty. At last in spring, when all
+his food was exhausted, he set out, taking his
+last possessions, an old Jack plane and a trout
+net, with him. Having no dogs, he had to travel
+afoot over the ice and snow. At last he came to
+the house of the best-off settler about, Mr. Tosten
+Anderson, a Norwegian, and a splendid fellow. When
+asked for food, Mr. Anderson, showing all the flour
+he had, said, “To part with any more than I have
+done, means we must all starve together.” This was
+thirty to forty miles from his own home. He then
+went on twelve miles to a Mr. James Thomas,
+whose reply was just the same. Two days later he
+reached Richard Blomfield’s house on his way back.
+Here he met the same reply again. No more was
+heard till three days later, when Blomfield was summoned
+to the Ollivers’ house. On the middle of the
+floor, his coat off and his gun by his side, lay Mr.
+Olliver, shot through the head. In a heap in one
+corner lay the three youngest children, scarcely dead
+from blows from an axe lying near them. Apparently
+determined to spare those who might provide<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>
+for themselves, he had sent out first his wife and
+eldest daughter to search for food, and his eldest boy
+to search for birds. Mr. Blomfield told me he supposed
+that the cries of the hungry children proved
+too much for the poor father. Truly Virginius of
+old acted in much the same way.</p>
+
+<p>This, of course, is an extreme case, and in order
+to arrive at a fair conclusion, we took, as far as
+possible, a census of the Livyeres—noting the numbers
+and ages of children—the proportion that could
+read and write, and the number each had of gallons
+of molasses, barrels of flour or pork, pounds of tea,
+and tobacco, which, alas, nearly all use, however poor
+and unable to afford luxuries. That a very large
+proportion had a quite insufficient quantity of food
+became beyond question. It must be remembered
+it is not a question of how much they can buy, but
+how much a supplier is willing to give to people
+already heavily indebted to him, only a few being
+independent enough to pay down for what they
+take. Government aid, sea birds, seals, trout, willow
+grouse, and rabbits, <em>i.e.</em> arctic hares, are the supplemental
+sources available. The Newfoundlanders are
+too often only little better off than Labradormen,
+and I have many piteous accounts of parents themselves
+suffering chronic starvation in order to supply
+their little ones with the necessities of life. Soon,
+it is sincerely to be hoped, the interior of Newfoundland
+will be opened up. All look to the new railway
+to turn the attention of many to the cultivation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>
+of the land, which will at least help to render existence
+more easy. It is reasonable to hope also
+that the new sealing laws, the new fishery restrictions,
+and Mr. Adolph Neilsen’s magnificent work
+at the fish hatchery and lobster incubation, are the
+presages of happier times. But the people can never
+be free, industrious, and contented, until the truck
+system is dead and buried.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> December, 1894. And now the long impending crash has come—both
+the banks of Newfoundland have failed, and ten out of twelve merchants’
+firms have had to suspend payment, while the masses of the population are
+face to face with absolute starvation. The Truck System has entailed ruin
+on all concerned in it, and has brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy.
+There are not few, however, who see in these terrible events the
+promise of better things. A better system of trade must arise, a better
+relation between labour and capital, a better era for this oldest of England’s
+colonies. “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” God grant it may be
+so in this case.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_099">
+<img src="images/i_099.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="462">
+<p class="caption center">A visit from Eskimo.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>RESULTS OF THE FIRST VISIT</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">November</span>, 1892, saw the <em>Albert</em> once more in
+St. Johns Harbour, after having spent seventy-eight
+days on the coast. She had visited many harbours,
+treated 900 patients, distributed much clothing
+and literature, and collected much valuable information;
+while Mr. Adolph Neilsen, superintendent of
+Newfoundland fisheries, who had joined the <em>Albert</em>
+during the greater part of her cruise, had been carrying
+on scientific observations calculated to directly
+benefit the fishing industry. Daily services had been
+held, at which thousands in all had been present, and
+not a few had confessed openly aboard their intention,
+by God’s help, to live new lives.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving in a new harbour, our large blue flag,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>
+now known along the whole coast as the herald of
+good things, had always proved a sufficient call to
+prayers. We found no need for adventitious attractions;
+where opportunities are so few, we found men
+and women only too glad to come and join in simple
+praise to God for mercies past, and prayer for the
+unknown future before them. Here the uncertainty
+of things seen, renders things unseen more real, while
+the impotence of man being so evident, makes the
+power of his Maker more intensely felt, and the
+anxiety to be ever ready to meet Him more deeply
+earnest. Even the sceptic has acknowledged it
+means something, this “coming to Christ” of the
+fisherman. His faith, unburdened by “higher criticisms,”
+or convenient interpretations, sees in his
+Master’s words a call to follow Him, on earth as well
+as in heaven. Often I have watched men tremble
+and hesitate, time after time, when God’s Spirit seems
+striving with them, before the final step is taken.
+For they count well the cost beforehand, and realize
+fully the weakness of their own natures. But once
+“over the line” means <em>following</em> Christ to them—means
+coming out, being separate, marked men.
+The world sets for them no higher standard than
+they set for themselves, and their self-sacrificing
+fidelity to their ideal has stirred the heart of more
+than one Christian worker. There is little half-and-half
+following, little “coasting” for fear of “launching
+out,” such as saps to-day the joy and rejoicing
+of thousands of professed Christians. A fisherman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>
+knows if he has “tacked ship,” and is on the Lord’s
+side, or on the other side. Often they say, “I should
+like to be”; almost never, “I hope I am.”</p>
+
+<p>For visiting places inaccessible to the ship, from
+the fact that they lay among dangerous rocks, or
+up narrow creeks, or because they only offered shelter
+to small boats, we had taken with us a twenty-five
+foot whale-boat, the <em>Alfred</em>, which we rigged with
+two lug-sails and a jib. In this we made many
+journeys. Once we capsized her; once lost our way
+in the fog, and had a nasty half-hour, with wind
+rising, and fearing we were making out to sea as we
+ran before it, till the thunder of the surf warned us
+of the land, and the bottom of towering cliffs, white
+with Atlantic breakers, broke suddenly into view.
+We had to abandon the boat that night, and walk
+home over the hills; but we managed to fetch her
+home, close-reefed under shelter of the back of the
+islands, next day. It so happened that where we
+landed two or three couples wanted marrying. No
+chance had offered for several years, so one couple
+determined at once to return to the ship with us for
+that ceremony, as we had at the time a visiting
+minister on board. It was late at night before we
+got there, but we decided (1) any hour was better
+than none, and (2) that in a lonely harbour, on a
+solitary ship (and as they already had three children),
+“pronouncing the banns might be dispensed
+with.” So we adjourned to the cabin, and proceeded
+to business at once. The skipper was best man and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>
+I was witness, while the steward and crew, who had
+previously decorated the cabin with bunting, together
+with one or two Livyeres from the creek, were congregation.
+After all was over, hard biscuits and
+tea were served, in lieu of a wedding breakfast,
+while the occasion was honoured from a few old
+fowling-pieces and by a couple of dynamite distress
+rockets on the <em>Albert’s</em> deck. Altogether, we visited
+in the <em>Alfred</em> and the <em>Albert</em> some thirty-five harbours,
+exertions which so told on the <em>Alfred’s</em> constitution
+that now she is taking her last rest at
+Great Yarmouth.</p>
+
+<p>Our dingey also upset in Domino Run, when endeavouring
+to get ashore; an accident which proved
+nearly fatal to the ship’s carpenter, for he happened
+to come up under the sail, and was unable to
+swim. Happily it only ended in an undignified
+rescue. A more serious accident happened to the
+<em>Albert’s</em> winch, for in Winsor Harbour, while letting
+go the anchor, a catch got wrong and stripped
+off all the teeth of the cog-wheels. After this we
+were unable to get our anchor in, except with the
+help of a great many men, for it was impossible to
+replace the cog-wheel on the Labrador. It was quite
+a sight on leaving harbours to see often fifty men,
+who had come off voluntarily, “walking in” the
+anchor by means of a system of pulleys, each as he
+came to the stern of the ship trotting back to catch
+hold of the rope again near the bow, a continuous
+chain of men being thus maintained, and all singing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>
+as they pulled, one of the old shanty songs to assist
+them to pull together. The names of the harbours
+we entered were, if old Eskimo names, long and unpronounceable,
+such as Nukasasuktok; if French,
+often almost unrecognisable, thus Cape d’Espoir has
+become Cape Despair; if English, often descriptive
+of some incident, such as Run-by-Guess, Seldom-Come-By,
+Ice Tickle, Cutthroat Island, Split-Knife
+Harbour, Bakeapple Bight, Tumbledown Dick Island,
+and so on.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_103">
+<img src="images/i_103.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="480">
+<p class="caption center"> Moravian Station, Hopedale.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When visiting up the bays our chief enemies
+were always the mosquitos. These are a very
+real scourge, for, like the black fly and sand fly,
+which also exist in myriads, they bite very severely,
+and we found them at times so thick that it was
+difficult to breathe without inhaling them. Even
+the “Livyeres” seldom, if ever, get accustomed to
+them, while it is at times impossible to send Newfoundland
+crews up inlets for firewood.</p>
+
+<p>Our medical cases had included many and various
+ailments, especially of the eye, the lungs, and the
+skin. Many teeth, of course, had called for attention;
+and the forceps had on more occasions than
+one been the way to a man’s heart. If you do not
+believe this, try a week’s toothache at sea without
+remedies.</p>
+
+<p>Among many interesting cases was that of one
+poor fellow, who fourteen days previously had accidentally
+shot off both his arms below the elbows.
+Since that time he had lain on his back, with nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>
+but an oily rag over the wounds. As we went into
+his hut he held up the raw stumps piteously, from
+which, in each case, some inches of bare bone
+protruded. What could be done was done to relieve
+his agony, but the poor fellow died of exhaustion
+after an operation on the stumps. The night we
+were leaving that harbour it was dark and blowing
+as I clambered out over the rocks, to signal for the
+ship’s boat about 10 p.m. There I found waiting
+for me the poor man’s wife, who, in a flood of tears,
+gratefully wrung my hands, till I too felt a choking
+sensation about the throat. There was something
+so real in her sorrow, now left still more lonely on
+that lonely coast.</p>
+
+<p>One day a silver-haired old fisherman came aboard
+for advice. “All my three sons died this summer
+from diphtheria, sir,” he told me. “I buried them
+all the same week. My eldest was nineteen, and he
+lasted out the fever; but he couldn’t swallow, and I
+did not know how to feed him.” “What did you
+do?” “Well, I tied a split herring round his throat—some
+say that is good—but he starved to death
+before my eyes. It is hard for us now to get along,
+with no one to help me tend the nets. You see I’m
+not so young now as I was.”</p>
+
+<p>One poor woman, with a tumour of the leg, one
+day sent for “the mission doctor.” She couldn’t
+walk for it, she said, and life had become a burden.
+We told her, “An operation will make you quite
+well, and we can put you to sleep while it is done.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>
+She would not take chloroform, however, and so we
+thought all was over. Next morning another message
+summoned me to the cottage, where I found
+five strong men waiting. “These men have promised
+to hold me, doctor, while you take that away.
+But I may bawl, mayn’t I?” In quarter of an hour
+all was completed, and my plucky patient was laughing
+loudest at the queer scene; for bawl she had,
+indeed, “to keep me from thinking of it,” she said.
+But the men held on well, and in ten days she was
+all healed, and was up and walking.</p>
+
+<p>Among our most interesting visits had been that
+to Hopedale, the most southern station of the Moravian
+missionaries; but I must leave to a later chapter
+a description of the Eskimo, of whom we saw a
+good deal. There were three Moravians and their
+wives here, the oldest having lived in Labrador
+twenty-seven years. Once a year they communicate
+with England by the good ship <em>Harmony</em>,
+which, with its predecessors, has been visiting the
+coast for one hundred and twenty years. These men
+are true followers of the Saviour in the self-sacrificing
+spirit, which draws them to live their lives
+out on so barren and deserted a coast. At seven
+years old their children leave them for ever, to be
+educated in Germany, and then find an occupation
+in life. In one harbour, Zoar, was a lonely missionary
+and his wife, who had just sent home their
+eighth and last child, a little girl of seven years.
+“Can you not bring me a baby from England? we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>
+are so lonely now,” said the good man’s wife to me.
+Even to get a wife they must write home, and one is
+chosen by lot for them. After our visit, they wrote
+as follows:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Hopedale, Labrador</span>,</p>
+<p class="right"><em>September 7th</em>.</p>
+
+<p><em>To the Council of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen.</em></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,—On behalf of the Moravian Mission
+here I would ask you to accept our warmest thanks
+for sending your ship, the <em>Albert</em>, to visit us and our
+people, cut off as we are for so many months in the
+year from the rest of the world. We feel by its
+visit that we are within your thoughts. For the
+comfort we have found in having our hands spiritually
+strengthened by the presence of other Christian
+men; for what benefit we have received from medical
+attendance in our Mission house and in our congregation;
+for the kind gift of books for our library,
+and for the blessing we had in joining these meetings
+kept, and for the pleasure we have had in meeting
+all those we met from the <em>Albert</em>, we beg you to
+accept our most hearty thanks. May our Lord and
+Saviour bless your work everywhere, as He has done
+it here among the fishermen and at our Station.</p>
+
+<p>With kind and brotherly love, we remain your
+brethren in Christ,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">P. M. Hansen</span>,</p>
+<p class="right"><em>Moravian Missionary</em>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Hopedale Harbour we stayed many days, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
+hundreds of vessels kept calling in on their way
+south; for winter was then approaching, and already
+cod-trap boats going to their nets had had to
+cut through two inches of new ice.</p>
+
+<p>On our arrival in St. Johns it was thought advisable
+to report the results and deductions from this
+experimental voyage. Accordingly his Excellency
+the Governor, Sir Terence O’Brien, invited the leading
+citizens acquainted with the fishery to meet at
+Government House. The report showed that (1)
+much needless suffering, limbs and special functions,
+besides life itself, were to be saved by the possibility
+of obtaining skilled assistance in the first instance;
+the famous sealing master, Captain Sam Blandford,
+who was present, stating that while he had charge
+of the mail steamer plying on the coast, seventeen
+unfortunate people had died aboard without possibility
+of proper treatment. (2) That even that year
+twenty-nine persons had died at one harbour in
+Labrador of diphtheria without being able to get a
+doctor’s help—nay, more, no one would take their
+fish or visit them to trade a winter’s supply. (3)
+That the doctor on the small mail steamer was so
+short a time in each harbour, and the time of his
+arrival so uncertain, that the people had little confidence
+in the few moments possible to devote to each
+case, even if they were fortunate enough to see the
+doctor at all, while it was impossible to undertake
+any serious case with success. (4) That poverty
+and starvation directly result from sickness or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>
+accident to the breadwinner being left untreated.
+After the report the following proposition was moved
+by the Hon. A. Harvey, and supported by Sir Wm.
+Whiteway, premier, and Sir Robert Thorborne, ex-premier,
+which was carried unanimously:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“<em>Resolved</em>—That this meeting, representing the
+principal merchants and traders carrying on
+the fisheries, especially on the coast of Labrador,
+and others interested in the welfare of
+this colony, desires to tender its warmest
+thanks to the directors of the Deep Sea Mission
+for their philanthropic generosity in sending
+their Hospital ship <em>Albert</em> to visit the fishing
+settlements on the Labrador coast....</p>
+
+<p>“Much of our fishing industry is carried
+on in regions beyond the ordinary reach of
+medical aid or of charity, and it is with the
+deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting
+learns of the amount of medical and surgical
+work done, besides all the other relief and help
+so liberally distributed. This meeting also
+desires to express the hope that the directors
+of the Mission may see their way to continuing
+the work thus begun, and should they do
+so they may be assured of the earnest co-operation
+of all classes of this community.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>His Excellency the Governor then nominated a
+committee to help to perpetuate and extend the operations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>
+of the Mission in Labrador. One merchant
+present, Mr. W. Baine Grieve, presented to the
+Mission a house at Battle Harbour for the first
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>Albert</em> soon after left for England. She reached
+Yarmouth on December 1st, where she received a
+hearty reception from the many friends of the work.</p>
+
+<p>In the report of the Chamber of Commerce of
+Newfoundland the following reference to the work
+was included:—</p>
+
+<p>“A new feature worthy of mention in this report,
+affecting as it does, more or less, the comfort of
+20,000 or 30,000 of our people, was the appearance
+on the Labrador coast of the Mission to Deep Sea
+Fishermen ship <em>Albert</em>, outfitted by a philanthropic
+society in England, non-sectarian in its lines, and
+intended to afford skilled medical aid to, and provide
+to some extent for the mental and material wants
+of our fishermen. This essay has been an unqualified
+success, and has evoked from the recipients of its
+bounty expressions of deep gratitude, while at the
+same time it has engendered in the breasts of all
+who are interested in the welfare and prosperity of
+the Colony feelings that must strengthen the bonds
+which bind this comparatively neglected dependency
+to the Mother Country. The vivid portraiture, by
+the doctor in charge, of his own personal experiences
+on the coast is likely to result in well-organized co-operation
+by the Colony next season upon the lines
+on which the Mission ship is being worked.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span></p>
+
+<p>And in February, 1893, the following resolution
+was received from the St. Johns Committee:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“That this representative Committee will undertake
+to provide two suitable buildings which
+may be used as hospitals by the Mission to
+Deep Sea Fishermen, should the Council of the
+Mission signify their intention to continue
+their operations on the coast of Labrador, and
+the Committee will heartily co-operate in any
+other way that the Council of the Society
+may suggest.</p>
+
+<p>“That a copy of the foregoing resolution be
+forwarded to Dr. Grenfell for the information
+of the Society.</p>
+
+<p>“(Signed) {<span class="smcap">T. O’Brien</span>, Governor, <em>Chairman</em>.</p>
+<p class="p10">{<span class="smcap">M. Monroe</span>, <em>Secretary</em>.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The council of the Mission replied that they were
+prepared to fit out a second expedition, and to undertake
+the working of the two hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of February, March, and April
+the captain of the <em>Albert</em> and myself held meetings
+in various towns, in the endeavour to raise money
+to carry on the work. Meanwhile we sent out
+directions for the fitting up of the house given by
+Mr. Baine Grieve at Battle Harbour, and also plans
+for a wooden hospital, to be built in sections in St.
+Johns, for transference to Indian Harbour, at the
+entrance to Eskimo Bay, one hundred and eighty
+miles further north.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span></p>
+
+<p>In April an earnest appeal was made for money
+to obtain a steam launch, to assist the <em>Albert</em>, by
+visiting otherwise inaccessible places, and by towing
+her in and out of narrow harbours. At the same
+time preparations were being pushed ahead at Yarmouth.
+The <em>Albert</em> was once more recalled from
+her work in the North Sea. She was victualled for
+six months, refitted as far as necessary, and stored
+with the clothing, woollens, and literature which had
+been in the process of collection all winter. A crew
+was shipped, and by the 1st of May she was all
+ready to sail. Our whaler had been knocked to
+pieces last year, and we had to get a new boat to
+replace it, or trust still to the money coming in for
+a steam launch.</p>
+
+<p>Arrangements had been made for the <em>Albert</em> to visit
+one or two English seaports on her journey out, in
+order to solicit further help, amongst others Exeter,
+Swansea, and Bristol, whence she was to sail direct
+to St. Johns. Still the money had not come in.
+While, however, we were at Bristol, our boat still
+unbought, the joyful news reached us, “Money necessary
+for a launch has now come in.” The <em>Albert</em>
+touched last of all at Swansea, where a suitable
+rowing boat, the <em>Mary Grenfell</em>, was presented to
+her. In Chester we found the most suitable launch
+for the money we had—an oak-built, copper-fastened
+boat, with simple 9-inch engine, six years of age,
+though only little work had been done in her. She
+was forty-five feet long. Her great defect was her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>
+width, which was only eight feet, so that, being
+carvel-built, she would roll most dreadfully. However,
+while the <em>Albert</em> sailed across to Queenstown
+we fitted out the launch at a total cost of £325, and
+arranged to ship it direct by Allan line steamer
+<em>Corean</em> to St. Johns. On June 1st I joined the <em>Albert</em>
+at Queenstown, and next morning we set sail for
+Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>The hospital committee had meanwhile appointed
+A. O. Bobardt, M.B., M.R.C.S., of Melbourne, Australia,
+and King’s Hospital, and Eliot Curwen, M.B., B.A.,
+of Cambridge and the London Hospital, as medical
+missionaries for the two hospitals. These sailed
+with us in the <em>Albert</em>. They had also appointed
+Miss Cecilia Williams and Miss Ada Carwardine to
+act as matrons and nurses under the doctors, and
+had arranged for them to sail by the same steamer
+as the launch. We had three dirty days on the way
+out, and once were at close quarters with a large
+iceberg, but the <em>Albert</em> again quitted herself well,
+and on our arrival in St. Johns we again experienced
+the greatest of kindness. Our committee had
+collected some fifteen hundred dollars. A meeting
+was at once called, and a small executive of two
+members were appointed for each hospital, the Hon.
+M. Monroe acting for Battle Harbour and Mr. W. C.
+Job for Indian Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival of the launch she was at once put
+into order for starting, while the nurses joined the
+<em>Albert</em>, as the best way to reach their respective<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>
+stations. Meanwhile the Indian Harbour hospital
+was sent on by steamer to Labrador. But a pleasing
+function yet remained to be done—the christening
+of the new launch. A telegram had reached
+us that the Princess May, who had long been
+interested in the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen,
+had consented to allow it to be named after her.
+Accordingly on May 6th, amidst much rejoicing
+and display of bunting, Her Excellency Lady
+O’Brien christened our launch the <em>Princess May</em>.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_116">
+<img src="images/i_116.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="475">
+<p class="caption center"> The <em>Princess May</em> in Hamilton Inlet.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>OUR SECOND SEASON</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> Friday, July 7th, with a steward, an engineer,
+and Dr. Bobardt as my companion, the <em>Princess
+May</em> left St. Johns for Labrador, the <em>Albert</em> having
+left the previous day. It was not without some feelings
+of misdoubt that we first encountered the swell of
+the Atlantic, knowing we should not make harbour
+till night; and as we had two large bays to cross,
+none of us being familiar with the coast, we had
+hoped for a clear day to enable us to keep the land
+in sight; but here again we were disappointed, for the
+rebound from the cliffs forced us to stand out half
+a mile to sea, and a dense fog shut everything from
+view. Not having yet given the launch a trial ourselves,
+and she being six years of age, we were not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>
+surprised after the first five miles, when the engineer
+sang out, “Sprung a leak, sir; shall we put
+back?” An examination revealed the fact that we
+could stop the leak with a wood plug; and so to
+disappoint some few “croakers,” who had “told us
+so,” we settled to stand on. Our compass having
+only a card disc, and not being filled with spirit to
+steady it, proved very unsteady, our narrow width,
+of only eight feet, making us roll very rapidly. We
+adopted the method of endeavouring to steer midway
+between the extreme points the needle swung
+to, and then to keep one point inside our course so
+that we should not run out to sea. Very shortly
+this resulted in bringing us up straight before a
+perpendicular cliff. Evidently our compass was incorrect.
+An examination revealed that its box had
+been screwed on to the cabin with large iron screws,
+the proper binnacle having been broken on the voyage
+out, and being still at the optician’s in St.
+Johns. These we soon extracted, and making a
+fresh start to the nor’ard sighted Bacalhao Island,
+about forty miles from St. Johns, at mid-day.</p>
+
+<p>Not having sighted any more land by 5 p.m., we
+began to think it was time to turn inshore, and after
+some time found ourselves suddenly amidst numbers
+of ragged rocks and small islands. Our chart book
+described on the north side of Trinity Bay some
+“Ragged Islands”; and we guessed we had struck
+among these, so once more we stood out into the
+fog. Shortly a weird noise attracted our attention.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>
+We stopped and listened. Yes, it was a fog-horn.
+This confirmed our recent diagnosis of “Ragged
+Islands,” and once more we knew where we were.
+Night saw us safely berthed in Catalina Harbour,
+where we managed to coal ship before going to rest.
+With no small feelings of satisfaction we went below
+that night. True the locker was hard to lie on,
+but the anxiety and subsequent success of that first
+day was a sure soporific, combined with the fact that
+the previous night had been none too restful, for we
+had then no confidence in the powers of the <em>Princess
+May</em>. Here we found our compass was still incorrect,
+so we unshipped it altogether and carried it
+forward, to be further from the magnetic influence
+of certain iron handles. Right gaily we left harbour
+next morning, but outside found a new experience.
+The wind had veered round and was
+blowing on shore, with a chilling drizzly rain to
+enhance the effect of the nasty lop of the sea. Our
+loose deck gear began to go overboard, and among
+it our boat-hook took leave of us. Being heavy at
+one end it disappeared from sight at once. It was
+gaily painted black and white, and we were sorry
+to lose it, being our only one. As I looked back it
+suddenly rose again, lifting its painted handle high
+out of water, as if to ask for help. We couldn’t
+well desert it after that, and so went round to pick
+it up. Our log has no record of the number of
+circles we completed; but if the reader has ever
+pursued a stick with one heavy end in a choppy sea,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>
+he will find it usually disappears just as the vessel
+has completed the tedious manœuvres necessary to
+come up to it. The next question was, should we
+venture further? The mail steamer was just coming
+out behind us, and it wouldn’t look well to give up.
+We would try for Cape Bonavista. By ten o’clock
+the Cape was safely rounded, and the wind increasing
+we determined to lay into the Bay, which
+is twenty-eight miles across. We should not have
+reached Greenspond, north of the bay, that night, had
+we steamed the course we intended; but after some
+hours steaming and seeing no land, we spied a fishing
+boat, and went alongside for information as to
+our locality. We found we were already across the
+bay to our great surprise and joy. It appeared that
+Dr. Bobardt, who had steered all day, had headed
+two points to the westward of his course.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_119">
+<img src="images/i_119.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="438">
+<p class="caption center"> Interior of Male Ward, Indian Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We were loath to steam on Sunday, but our next
+run round Cape Freels was a most difficult one, from
+the numberless off-lying rocks and shoals. So when
+three a.m. showed a clear horizon and a calm sea,
+we started off. Alas, fog fell on us shortly, and left
+us threading our way through the labyrinth. Now
+and again we could see bottom, and at times some
+rock near the surface, over which at intervals the
+swell would break with a noise like thunder. The
+<em>Princess May</em> did well this day—covering eighty
+miles—and the mail steamer, which had only just
+reached and was anchored for the night in Toulinguet
+Harbour, was surprised to see us come in and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>
+tie up alongside. The fourth day saw us on the
+French shore, as we rounded Cape John at mid-day.
+Here, however, we met a strong head wind,
+against which we had no alternative but to steam.
+Now, to provide some kind of cabin, a little house
+had been built into the fore-part of the launch, with
+a square glass front, being inside just about the size
+and shape of the ordinary ’bus. As we steamed
+into the head sea, it was just up to this part of the
+cabin, which projected a couple of feet above deck,
+that the launch dived, with the result that a sort of
+water spout was thrown up and then dropped on
+deck. Yet, as everything was closed up, no water
+got below, and we managed to make a harbour to
+the north side of the headland. The water, however,
+got everywhere but below, and we were glad
+of a change after dropping anchor.</p>
+
+<p>At almost all the places we called at along the
+French shore, we found the people very poor and
+but little educated. Unfortunately in Newfoundland
+the Sectarian School system prevails, with
+a most disastrous result among these poor and
+scattered communities. In all we found some who
+were anxious to avail themselves of the visit of
+a doctor. In many no qualified medical man ever
+goes; and on the part known to us, that is the
+east coast, there are none at all resident. In the
+lonely harbour we were now in, called Pacquet,
+a man soon emerged from the woods and came off
+to us in a boat. He was ill-clad and looked equally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>
+ill-fed, and his boy, who was with him, was suffering
+from a pustular disease of the skin, for which
+we prescribed. Though it was warm where we
+were anchored the inlet was still partially choked
+by two large icebergs, and our friend told us that
+want of a net, and indeed any proper fishing gear,
+as yet prevented their getting any fish. The mosquitos
+were here very numerous and very busy. It
+was impossible almost to go ashore even for fresh
+water from the river at the head of the inlet, and
+indeed when the dingey came back, a cloud of these
+bloodthirsty pests followed her to the launch, and
+invited themselves to spend the night in our already
+sufficiently crowded cabin. Professor Hind narrates
+an Indian tradition that mosquitos were created for
+the benefit of a saint, who, for disobedience, had been
+banished from heaven to a desert part of the earth.
+In her solitude she prayed for even flies as companions,
+whereupon mosquitos and black flies were
+created. This gave her plenty of employment till it
+was time for her to return, but the flies remained
+in order to teach men the folly of trying to divert
+their attention from the consequences of their sins
+by seeking amusement. Captain Whitbourne says
+they are of great use to make the idle work.</p>
+
+<p>We were early astir next morning, and took a
+course for the St. Barbe Islands. But a breeze rising
+towards the land, we made a detour in order to cross
+White Bay, which is eighteen miles at its narrowest
+point, and so lay across till we were seven or eight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>
+miles only from land. Then we again headed north,
+and by nine o’clock, with a good breeze behind us,
+crossed Hare Bay and ran into St. Anthony Harbour.
+During the day a curious mirage had for
+some time kept us under the impression that we were
+hedged in by floe ice. We could see the vertical
+edge, the gleaming white top, and what appeared to
+be even cracks, fissures, and hummocks. It turned
+out to be only an optical illusion, and we found that
+it kept retreating before us all the afternoon like a
+will-of-the-wisp. At St. Anthony we were among
+friends of last year, so were soon ashore, and the
+day closed with a hearty service in the kitchen of
+the largest house.</p>
+
+<p>The breeze increasing, delayed us a day in this
+port, but before daylight on the 13th we left for
+an attempt to cross the Straits of Belle Isle. As
+we rounded Cape Bauld a most magnificent crimson
+light lit up the whole horizon. Against it stood
+out many stately icebergs, rising weird and ghostly
+from the deep purple of the sea. One of immense
+height looked just like some gigantic cathedral, its
+gabled roof in the red glow shining like burnished
+gold, while ever and anon the stillness preceding
+dawn was broken by the deep boom of the Atlantic
+swell reverberating from some hollow chasm at its
+base, suggesting a mighty organ played in its vast
+recesses. No sooner had we passed it in silence
+than the engineer touched me on the arm and pointed
+back at its lordly summit. “Look, sir! isn’t that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>
+some one on the berg?” And there, sure enough,
+plain and sharp against the sky, on the crest, stood
+the figure of a man. But our glasses soon dispelled
+the illusion. It was but a pinnacle with a thin base,
+which, when thus seen edgeways, so closely resembled
+a human figure.</p>
+
+<p>From here we headed for the Sacred Islands, and
+a breeze making up the straits, we ran in behind
+Cape Onion to see what sort of a day it was going
+to be, before we ventured to cross the straits. I
+was surprised, on landing, at the quantity and
+variety of wild flowers here. There were represented
+among many others, saxifrages, umbellifers, composites,
+ranunculi, primulas, and gentians. The
+insectivorous “Drosera” is common on the heights,
+and the beautiful “Linnæus borealis” nestles in
+among the scrub.</p>
+
+<p>The country, viewed from the head, is very peculiar,
+being, as far as the eye could range, one
+immense flat plain, with quite as much water as dry
+land, from the innumerable winding ponds or lakes
+of fresh water.</p>
+
+<p>By mid-day we ventured to make a start, and
+headed direct for Cape Charles, close inside the
+island of Belle Isle. As we brought the hills and
+steep cliffs of Labrador into view, we found there
+was still much snow in the gulfs and crevices;
+while it was necessary carefully to thread our way
+among the numbers of icebergs, which up to this
+very week had been blocking the straits. By sundown
+we sighted the flag-staff on Battle Island, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>
+at 7.30 were once more alongside the <em>Albert</em>. A
+crowded gathering below decks closed the day, all
+being full of joy and hope at the prospect of another
+season’s work.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the house given by Mr. Baine Grieve
+was inspected, and we found that Mr. Hall, the
+agent for the fishery, had already placed it almost
+in a condition for occupation. The <em>Albert’s</em> crew also
+had been at work—carpentering, painting, and
+landing heavy goods, such as bedsteads, bedding,
+food, drugs, and furniture.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the hospital for Indian Harbour, at the
+mouth of Hamilton inlet, had been sent north, ready
+cut in sections in the coastal steamer, <em>Winsor Lake</em>.
+Two carpenters had also been sent north to work at
+its erection. Next day, therefore, our party divided
+again, the <em>Albert</em> going north to help with the
+second hospital, having on board Dr. Curwen and
+Sister Williams, while I, in the <em>Princess May</em>, went
+south along the straits of Belle Isle, Dr. Bobart
+and Sister Carwardine remaining at Battle. This
+arrangement was rendered possible by the agent
+extending his generous hospitality to the nurse and
+doctor indefinitely.</p>
+
+<p>Our first run took us to Red Bay, where we at
+once were among friends of last year. Alas, poverty
+and want had laid their hands heavily on this
+place, and some families had been nearly naked
+and next door to starving all winter. Not only
+had 1892 been a poor fishery, but now the best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>
+chance for 1893, viz. the caplin school of cod, had
+come and gone, while densely packed ice, held in
+by persistent easterly winds, had prevented the men
+getting their nets out.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_128">
+<img src="images/i_128.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="460">
+<p class="caption center"> A Newfoundlander’s Hut, Labrador.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center"><em>OUR VOYAGE CONTINUED</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> our arrival in a harbour our method was, as
+last year, to hoist our blue flag to announce our
+arrival, to then visit any seriously sick I could hear
+of, after which we had evening service in a shed,
+stage, or house, and then, last of all, any could come
+for advice or assistance. To every family or vessel
+a good bundle of reading was given if they wished
+it, all the literature being selected at home as healthy
+and suitable for fishermen. If any wanted God’s
+Word, that, too, was to be had for asking for it;
+while a register was kept of all the poor, describing
+as accurately as we could the nature of the needs
+and deserts of each case, in order that when, at the
+end of the year, we divided up the warm clothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>
+we had brought out, it should fall into the hands of
+the most deserving. In this way also we became
+possessed of a valuable record for future reference.
+Thus in one house when visiting a case, I found my
+patient to be the mother of a large family. The poor
+thing, who, with self-sacrificing courage, had refused
+to believe herself ill till she could get about no
+more, was lying on one single wood form in a bare
+and dirty room, her head close to an old cracked
+stove, behind which a crowd of shivering urchins
+were huddled together. The sickness was acute
+bronchitis and pleurisy, made worse by little clothing
+and less food. A haggard man meanwhile
+was pacing up and down, nursing a screaming and
+hungry baby. I pulled the children out from behind
+the stove for inspection; but their rags so failed to
+cover them, that each hastened back at once after
+the ordeal to the seclusion and warmth behind the
+old stove. The complete attire of one bony little mite
+was an old trouser leg, into which he was packed
+like a sack. All were alike barefooted.</p>
+
+<p>Staying here over Sunday, I was the guest of a Labrador
+fisherman, rather better off than the majority,
+an erect, grey-haired man of about forty-five, standing
+some six feet two inches. His cottage, built with
+his own hands, was a pattern of neatness and cleanliness,
+but the bad seasons were compelling even
+him to desert the harbour, and try squatting farther
+along the coast. He was still the fortunate possessor,
+however, of a cod-trap (value about £80), by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>
+means of which he still hoped to end the year out
+of debt. He was the class leader for the neighbourhood,
+and had many years been standing on the
+Lord’s side, and, indeed, after the Wesleyan Missionary
+for the Straits, he was the backbone of the
+religious life of the place. Such an one, where
+every detail of one’s life is known, must indeed be
+an “Epistle read of all men,” of which fact he was
+well aware, as also, that his neighbours, while unable
+or undesirous to read God’s word for themselves,
+measured the claims of God on their own life very
+largely by his actions. This we found to obtain
+more or less along the whole coast, especially among
+these scattered communities, where little or no provision
+is made for their spiritual needs. When
+therefore Sunday morning broke, and a large iceberg
+was noticed drifting towards his cod-trap, threatening
+to deprive him of his means of earning his daily
+bread, he at first decided to go and spend the day
+working to save his net. But soon he came back,
+saying, “I’ve decided not to go, doctor; there are
+those in this harbour that only want a pretext for
+working on the Lord’s Day, and I’ll not be the one
+to give it them.” As we climbed the hill to the
+little wooden chapel I noticed him standing and
+greeting the people as they came along, according
+to his custom, as if forgetful of the fact that the
+mass of ice was at that moment probably robbing
+him of his all. We had three <em>such</em> services that
+day; the Wesleyan missionary, the Rev. John Sidey,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>
+was present, and more than one of our hearts were
+full at the evidence of the reality of God’s Spirit
+among this out-of-the-way, isolated people. Long
+before sunrise on Monday, indeed immediately after
+midnight, my good host was away in his boat after
+the wreck of his cod-trap, and by breakfast had
+returned, his face radiant with the same happy smile
+he always has, saying, “I <em>knew</em> it would be all right,
+doctor. The worst of the ice passed outside it; a
+few hours’ work, and we shall get it all right again.”</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_131">
+<img src="images/i_131.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="446">
+<p class="caption center"> Interior of Indian Harbour Hospital.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the Straits of Belle Isle we visited all the
+stations to Old Ford Island, about 100 miles from
+the entrance. At L’Anse au Loup, Blanc Sablon
+(the boundary between Canada and Newfoundland),
+and at Bonne Esperance, we found large stations
+for fishing, with numbers of men hard at work at
+the caplin school. We had quite a number of
+surgical and medical cases, including two of true
+(sailor’s) scurvy from want of proper food. At one
+place we were called to operate on the back of a
+French settler, at another on the arm of a poor
+Newfoundland schooner-man. In this last case I
+had the assistance of a Roman Catholic priest who
+was journeying along the coast.</p>
+
+<p>While visiting in Forteau Bay we passed close to
+the wreck of H.M.S. <em>Lily</em>. We found here that a
+Beaver line steamer, the <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Lake Nepigon</em>, had
+recently run ashore. While journeying down the
+straits she had struck on a whale-back iceberg,
+and was sinking head foremost, like the <em>Victoria</em>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>
+when her captain succeeded in grounding her on
+one of the few bits of sand for miles. Her screw
+and rudder were practically out of water when she
+took the bottom, with her bows in 27 feet. The
+doctor aboard had spent three days on shore near,
+and had operated on one cancer of the lip and on an
+old compound dislocation of the wrist in a young
+girl. These came to us to have the stitches removed.</p>
+
+<p>While returning from visiting a patient at Greenly
+Island in thick fog, we were unfortunate enough to
+run the <em>Princess May</em> ashore. It was as dark as
+pitch at the time, and we had burnt all our flares
+out while threading our way through a quantity of
+schooners at anchor. Two men on the bows of the
+boat, after a long pause to search for some guidance,
+had just given the word “all right ahead,”
+when we ran up on a flat-topped rock, and found
+that high, almost perpendicular, cliffs were only a
+few yards ahead. Throwing out our dingey, and
+removing all superfluous weight from the bows, we
+succeeded shortly in getting off; and guided by the
+stentorian shouts of some men from a schooner,
+alternating with their fog-horn, we found our way
+alongside and made fast to her. As we were too
+many even to lie down on the launch I went aboard
+the schooner, the hospitable skipper of which insisted
+on my turning into his bunk. He was only
+just back, apparently, with a load of fish from his
+traps, and hearing the echo of our voices from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>
+cliffs had guessed something was wrong. He added,
+“there is fish to be had now, and so I don’t turn
+in at all myself”; and sure enough, after a shake
+down and some supper he and his crew disappeared
+into the foggy darkness for a fresh load from the
+trap, while sleep reigned supreme on board. He
+turned out to be a green-fish catcher, who was
+“making” his fish on his vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Further along the straits, at Bonne Esperance, we
+met with a more serious mishap, for while returning
+from a visit up Salmon River our propeller refused
+to rotate, and we had to depend on our sail. The
+kindness of the first engineer of a sealing steamer
+(Mr. William Crossman) anchored in the harbour
+set us all right again, however, for he made us a
+complete set of new steel screws for our piston-top—our
+own had given out, and we neither had means
+of making new ones, or replacing them, in Labrador.
+After one or two other similar mishaps, but having
+treated some one hundred and fifty patients, and
+having received much kindness and a warm welcome
+wherever we had been, we reached Battle
+Hospital again on the 29th of July. We brought a
+dying fisherman the last 80 miles with us, which
+necessitated his sleeping three nights in my cabin.
+He was still in the prime of life, but pneumonia
+developed into gangrene of the lungs, and he subsequently
+died in Battle Harbour Hospital.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday passed pleasantly and rapidly among
+the people here. After evening service, held by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>
+schoolmaster in the little church, we had a good
+“fishermen’s meeting.” Dr. Bobardt was away all
+day visiting sick people on a neighbouring island,
+and holding service among them. No patients were
+yet allowed in hospital, though it now only remained
+to cover the floors and get the stores in. Sister
+Carwardine had therefore arranged for the nursing
+of one poor woman, on whom an operation had been
+necessary, in a room of a cottage near at hand.</p>
+
+<p>As the mail steamer was shortly expected, and
+would certainly bring patients for the hospital, the
+following day was spent by all hands in rendering
+the hospital inhabitable; and by evening our first
+patient was comfortably located in a room on the
+ground floor, while the sister spent her first night
+in hospital in an arm-chair.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, before leaving for the north, Dr. Bobardt
+again being away visiting, I was called on to bury
+a poor fellow, father of a family of five, who had
+died from consumption in a neighbouring cove. The
+burial-ground is a small plot at the bottom of a deep
+ravine on the seaboard side of the island. On each
+side rose barren rocky crags, behind was the bleak
+island top, while in front lay the great Atlantic,
+bearing on its heaving bosom, as far as the eye
+could see, countless mighty icebergs. As the sad
+procession wound along the defile, carrying in its
+rude wood covering what was so recently a living,
+hopeful human being; as they laid it in its last long
+resting-place amidst these cold and desolate surroundings,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>
+the craving for something beyond the
+grave burnt fiercely in every heart; while the joy
+of knowing of a Heavenly Father, who has given
+us victory even over the grave, was realized as a
+priceless possession which the world cannot give—no,
+nor sell either.</p>
+
+<p>Our next object was to visit the coast up to Indian
+Harbour, calling for coal and a few supplies left for
+us half-way up by the <em>Albert</em>, at a place called
+Bateau. In making a narrow inlet called Francis
+Harbour, we found much difficulty in getting in; for
+after long searching for the entrance, it proved to
+be blocked with ice, and a circuitous method inside
+an island was unknown to us. However, once inside
+the warmth of our welcome made up for the suspense
+outside, and after service in the neat and
+commodious parlour of the agent’s (Mr. Penny)
+house, we had a <em>levée</em> of sick visitors till midnight.
+We next entered a deep narrow cleft in a high
+mountain, running parallel with the sea, nowhere
+wider than a stone’s throw. It is very deep, and
+high hills of bright red rocks rise abruptly on both
+hands. On the outer side are perched houses and
+fishing stages. This is known as Venison Tickle.
+The agent (Mr. Hawker) received us most warmly,
+and being himself doctor, parson, planter, and all
+combined, took me round at once to the various sick
+and injured. One poor old fisherman, suffering from
+apoplectic paralysis, we sent to hospital at Battle,
+though we learnt from a schooner that already it
+was nearly full.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span></p>
+
+<p>Landing on a low island as we passed north, we
+found the eider-duck nesting in considerable numbers,
+while in the little pools among the rocks were young
+ducks and young gulls in numbers. Of the latter
+we caught several for our stew-pot. We steamed
+thence fifteen miles to Boulter’s Rock Harbour by a
+long narrow channel inside two enormous islands,
+the passage being known as Squasho Run. Fog
+succeeded fog all along this part of the coast, and it
+was only by the help of volunteer local pilots we
+succeeded in finding many of the harbours.</p>
+
+<p>One dark night, unable to find our way further,
+we dropped our anchor inside some outlying islands
+called Seal Islands. It seemed to us that we had
+hardly got straight and settled down for the night’s
+rest before we heard a boat bumping against our
+side. In such a lonely place, and in a thick drizzly
+fog at night, a superstitious person might well have
+started. Soon we heard the soft tread of a mocassin
+over the half-inch boarding which, covered with
+painted canvas, served us as a roof; then a bustling
+at the hatchway door, and soon the broad face of a
+half-breed Eskimo peered into the cabin. It appeared
+he had a very sick daughter at his hut on the island,
+near which no doctor ever went. He had heard of
+the <em>Princess May</em> being about; and seeing our cabin
+lights shining as he chanced to pass in his boat
+homewards, he had come in search of assistance.
+Soon, swathed in oilskins, I was sitting in the stern
+of his boat, while he swiftly rowed away into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>
+darkness. Landing, and following closely behind him
+over broken rock for some quarter mile, brought me
+to his cottage, which, in true Labrador fashion, was
+well filled with inhabitants. Among them I found
+two seriously ill, one a young man of eighteen, the
+other a young married woman of about thirty. On
+this poor woman it was necessary to operate on our
+way south in order to save life even for the time;
+but as we had no hospital open in winter, she had
+to be left in that crowded hut to the tender mercies
+of the most unskilled of nurses, and though any
+communication with the island has been impossible
+since, I fear she will not have survived the winter.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> 1895. She has perfectly recovered, in the most
+marvellous manner.—W. T. G.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>I was one day asked, a little further north, to visit
+a woman reported to have been ill in bed for three
+months, and who was living up a bay fully ten
+miles from any fishing station. At length, dropping
+our anchor off the spot indicated, which was the
+mouth of a large salmon river, we blew our whistle
+repeatedly to try and attract her husband’s attention.
+After some time a small boat put out with
+one man sculling in the stern. He seemed to approach
+warily, and the man piloting me took in the
+situation in a moment. As soon as the small boat
+was alongside, he greeted the oarsman with “It’s all
+up; come aboard and surrender quietly, or you will
+be shot down.” The condemning reply came back,
+“Indeed, sir, the river isn’t barred. It couldn’t be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>
+barred. No nets would hold across it. It never has
+been barred. I wouldn’t bar the river. You can
+come and see for yourself.” We got into his boat,
+and he started with us to the shore, when I asked
+him if the launch was safe at her anchorage, as
+darkness was coming on. The prompt reply was
+that she would be aground on rocks at low water,
+and that we had better steam across the inlet and
+anchor the other side, where it was soft and good
+holding ground, at which our engineer at once proceeded
+to get steam again. On landing, I asked for
+the sick woman, and was shown into the most miserable
+dark hovel I ever saw. By a wretched tin chimneyless
+lamp I examined my patient. She was lying
+clad in one old petticoat on a few sacks spread over
+a kind of built-up bunk. Her bodily ailments were
+fortunately not great, but as she told me, and I
+believe truthfully, having no clothes to get up in,
+she was obliged to stay where she was. Turning
+to go out, I stumbled over our boatman, who at once
+commenced most profuse apologies. It appears he
+was just off to destroy his “bar,” when my pilot
+had told him I was not an excise officer, and the
+<em>Princess May</em> was not a gunboat. So he went off to
+tell the engineer the anchorage was good enough,
+I fear that is not the only barred salmon river in
+Labrador.</p>
+
+<p>Further north we steamed up Sandwich Bay, and
+visited, among other places, Cartwright, now a
+Hudson Bay post, but founded about 1790 by an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>
+English trader of that name. Here again we had a
+serious case to deal with. A girl of fourteen had
+been ill with internal abscess for between two and
+three years. She was sent to hospital after a trifling
+operation, and remained there a month. When
+I returned south I found her well and happy, and
+she told me she was only sorry she could not live in
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>I was interested in examining at Cartwright a
+marble tomb, raised, as the inscription proclaimed,
+“to commemorate the piety and zeal of the founder
+of this colony.” Some humble lichens had, in the
+course of time, grown in between the slabs, and
+with irresistible power had forced them open, revealing
+to the prying eye within not the crumbling
+dust of the departed trader, but a mighty demijohn
+of rum, no doubt made mellow by long years of
+waiting. Alas! that there are those to-day whose
+memory would be most aptly treasured by such an
+epigram, whom in life, for their riches’ sake, a
+blinded world “delights to honour.”</p>
+
+<p>We were now only two hands on the launch, the
+engineer and myself, for our steward had returned
+to Battle Hospital. We were therefore anxious to
+push ahead, and on August 10th we were glad to
+run into Indian Harbour, and again “bring to”
+alongside the <em>Albert</em>. We found to our sorrow that
+bad weather had prevented the landing of our hospital
+till a month after we had expected; and, though
+all available hands had been at work, it was found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>
+impossible to occupy it this season. We therefore
+decided, as soon as the shell was finished and all
+done that could be without cutting the chimneys, to
+board up the windows, store the property in it, and
+leave it for the winter under care of the nearest
+“Livyere.” Meanwhile Dr. Curwen and Nurse
+Williams would remain on the <em>Albert</em>, and use it as
+their hospital. This place is the centre of a very
+large number of stations, and they had already found
+ample scope for work. Just before we left in the
+<em>Princess May</em>, both doctor and sister were summoned
+over the island to treat a woman on whom a fish
+stage had fallen, while they already had in the ship’s
+hospital a young girl dying of consumption. The
+condition in which some of our patients were when
+first admitted was horrible; the condition of the
+women from the green-fish catchers especially;
+for with scarcely any privacy, and scarcely any
+opportunities for washing, it was not to be wondered
+at that vermin often abounded. The experience
+of both our nurses tallied in this respect, and
+a good wash, clean clothes, and a few days’ nursing
+always appeared to work marvels, even in apparently
+hopeless cases. When it became evident that
+this poor girl must die, she expressed her determination
+to go home by the first opportunity, that, if
+possible, she might reach her family in Newfoundland
+before the end came.</p>
+
+<p>It was ten o’clock at night, and a blustering
+evening in Cape Webeck Harbour, when we next<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>
+met the mail steamer going south. With much
+difficulty we got our poor patient into the boat,
+wrapped over and over in clean blankets; two of us
+in the stern sheets holding the large bundle in our
+arms, while Captain Trezise and his men rowed us
+down the harbour. Getting her up the steamer’s
+side was, however, a still less easy task, but was
+at last accomplished, and she was soon ensconced
+in a bunk in the saloon. Fortunately we had
+decided that Nurse Williams should now return to
+Battle Harbour to help Nurse Carwardine, for the
+hospital there was now overflowing into huts around,
+and our in-patients could be kept down to one or
+two. The nurse therefore was able to tend to her
+wants during the journey down. Eventually she
+reached St. Johns, where the Rev. Dr. Harvey most
+kindly met her, got her to the train and off to her
+home; so that her last wish was gratified, and she
+passed away peacefully among her loved ones.</p>
+
+<p>At Cape Harrison we had a really hot Sunday,
+the flat cabin reflecting the sun so fiercely from the
+water that our very paint began to blister. Such a
+chance was not to be lost, and the fisherfolk gathered
+from far and near. One company, who journeyed
+from their schooner in King’s Arm, must have travelled
+some ten miles to us, rowing first to Sloop
+Harbour, then walking over the high cape, and then
+rowing again to Webeck Island; while even as we
+went to and fro from the meetings, which, owing to
+the numbers, we were obliged to hold on the shore,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>
+we heard sounds of hymns and praying from some
+of the mud huts we passed. It was a day indeed
+to be remembered. Our longest single expedition
+during this time had been to the Hudson Bay post
+of Rigoulette, up Hamilton inlet, some fifty miles
+from the entrance. Here we had several patients;
+and especially one little lad with a diseased bone in
+the leg—part of this it was necessary to remove.
+At the operation we were ably helped by the wife of
+the agent (Mr. Wilson), who proved herself a most
+able nurse and assistant. The difference of temperature
+up this long inlet is very marked, and we found
+the children of the house actually picnicing outside
+the hut in a canvas tent.</p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_145">
+<img src="images/i_145.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="579">
+<p class="caption center"> The <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Princess May</em> in Merchantman Harbour.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> next meeting with the <em>Albert</em> was arranged
+for Hopedale, the first station of the Moravian
+brethren. In the meanwhile we visited such harbours
+as Ironbound Island, Ragged Islands, Roger’s Harbour,
+Long Island, Ailik, Turnavik, and Winsor Harbour.
+Again we had one or two serious cases: one poor
+fellow with cancer of the gullet; one from whom it
+was necessary to amputate two fingers, and from
+another one finger. While at Winsor Harbour, we
+decided to visit an off-lying island, called “Double
+Island,” from which the Hopedale Eskimo had their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>
+summer fishery. Unfortunately it is not even indicated
+on the charts, and missing our way to it we
+got entangled among a series of reefs. At sundown
+a strong northerly wind arose, making the water
+boil in foaming breakers over the shallow patches.
+This however in reality assisted us, for we were
+thus able to avoid the hidden dangers, as any
+shallow likely to pick up the <em>Princess May</em> was now
+a white seething mass; indeed, I have found places
+where we saw the water break as deep as five to
+fifteen fathoms. We had decided at last to “heave
+to” under the lee of an island, keeping steam all
+night for fear of a shift of wind, when through our
+glasses we descried against the horizon a ragged
+tent. Steering for this we soon descried figures of
+some of the little people skurrying to and fro after
+their fish as fast as they could go, for the sky
+looked threatening, and they did not wish the fish
+to get wet again. Our steam whistle at once caught
+their attention, and soon two of their little boats
+came shooting out through the surf.</p>
+
+<p>With their help we were safely moored fore and
+aft in a little narrow creek, and a few minutes
+later saw us ashore. Amongst them we noticed
+many friends of last year, especially a dear old man,
+a sort of Christian father among them, named
+Daniel. A profuse hand-shaking and welcoming ensued,
+and then they intimated they wished me to
+come up to one of their tents. My Eskimo was
+exhausted, however, with Auchenai—How do you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>
+do? (or, literally, Be ye strong?), and Aila, yes, and
+a few other every-day expressions. When, therefore,
+I was set down on a low box in the tent,
+with a space in front of me for the patients to
+squat, and the rest of the ground available densely
+packed with Esquimaux, I was confronted with the
+difficulties of a veterinary surgeon. Among other
+things a toe, frost-bitten last winter, had to be removed;
+apparently not such a painful operation as
+one might have supposed at first, and one in which
+the patient appeared to take a personal interest, from
+the proud fact that she occupied on that account
+the position of most importance.</p>
+
+<p>At Hopedale I left the <em>Albert</em> again, and, joined
+by one of the Moravian Brethren—a Dane (Rev. P.
+Hansen), proceeded at once further north. Together
+we visited as far as Okkak, though the entire absence
+of charts, and the innumerable islands and
+labyrinths, made us more than once end up in a
+blind tickle. At Zoar we deposited our deck cargo
+of coal, piling up wood on our cabin top instead,
+and lashing a ladder against our foremast, from the
+top of which in the clear water it was possible to
+see rocks in time to avoid them. We passed on our
+way immense flocks of water-fowl. While in places
+the rocks shine with the beautiful blue or yellow
+sheen of the Labrador felspar, the trees get perceptibly
+fewer and smaller as Okkak is approached, the
+shrubs more stunted, and the berries more scarce,
+until north of Hebron no trees at all are found.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p>
+
+<p>With much perseverance and labour the brethren
+at each station raise a few potatoes, cabbages and
+flowers, but when trees are cut down for wood they
+do not replace themselves in a man’s lifetime. It
+is impossible in these pages to recount all the incidents
+of this part of the trip. At each station I
+had numerous patients—Eskimo and white. In the
+former cases my dear friend and whilom companion,
+the Rev. P. Hansen, interpreted. At each station
+also we gathered daily for prayer and exhortation,
+and for me the time passed all too quickly. Now,
+however, the approach of winter was making itself
+felt. Schooners were flying south before every
+favourable breeze, and in so small a boat as the
+<em>Princess May</em> no unnecessary delay was advisable.
+On the 8th of September we again reached Hopedale,
+and were surprised to find the <em>Albert</em> still
+there.</p>
+
+<p>A terrible tragedy had occurred in a neighbouring
+inlet. It appeared some men fishing, from
+an island called East Turnavik, had gone up
+to boil their tea-kettle at a solitary house on a
+promontory of Kipekok Bay. On entering they at
+first found no one at home, but during the process
+of tea-making came across two women lying on the
+floor of the passage covered over with a counterpane.
+At first they thought they were merely enjoying
+an afternoon sleep, but soon found both were
+dead; hereupon they at once beat a hasty retreat
+to their own island, and next day came back with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>
+half-a-dozen more men and the planter. A search
+revealed two more dead women in an inner room,
+while no trace of the two men who lived there
+could be found.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, however, these returned with wood from
+the bay, saying they had been away making coffins
+for the last four days. The circumstances were so
+suspicious, and one of the men bore such an exceedingly
+bad character on the coast—having been
+suspected of deeds as dark before—that the two
+neighbouring planters advised an inquiry, and sent
+up their steam launch to Hopedale for Dr. Curwen
+to come and make an examination. From the evidence
+taken from the men, and the general appearances
+of the case, he was convinced they had died
+of poisoning. Eventually the head of the police
+was sent down from St. Johns, and, confessing to
+another crime, the worst of the two men was taken
+away and placed in Harbour Grace Jail for the
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst endeavouring one night to navigate a
+narrow passage known as “the Rattle,” the <em>Princess
+May</em> had been suddenly caught by the current,
+and at full speed taken a rocky bottom. The
+tide was falling at the time, and all hopes of
+getting off before morning had to be abandoned.
+Our ladder and some large blocks of wood lashed
+together were therefore placed under her port bilge,
+and she was listed over on to them by all the moveable
+weights we had. After a very uneasy night,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>
+which fortunately held calm, we got safely off. It
+was necessary now to inspect the launch’s bottom.
+We therefore grounded her in Hopedale Harbour,
+and at low tide examined her outer casing. She
+proved to be nastily dinted in one or two places:
+a bit of her keel was gone, and a few inches of
+copper torn off here and there, but her hull was
+still as sound as a drum. Not so her shaft. We
+found that it had worn very considerably inside
+the propeller, and the outer end had so dropped
+that another two inches and the screw would be
+unable to rotate. For this we had no remedy, and
+had nothing for it but to “Go ahead.” Sunday,
+the 10th of September, we spent in Hopedale, the
+harbour of which was now crowded with no less
+than 100 schooners; and though the Brethren put at
+our disposal their large chapel, capable of holding
+some 400 people, Captain Trezise found it necessary
+in the evening to hold an overflow service on the
+<em>Albert</em>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_151">
+<img src="images/i_151.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="451">
+<p class="caption center"> An Eskimo Family, Hopedale.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was with no ordinary feelings of sorrow that
+we heard at Emily Harbour that the <em>Albert</em> had
+been ashore. To think of her splendid frame and
+delicate lines the sport of these cruel jagged rocks
+was heartrending. The beautiful little ship which
+had smiled at so many storms, and carried those entrusted
+to her so many thousands of miles so faithfully
+and safely. It appears she was trying to
+make West Turnavik Harbour at night, and the
+pilot who came off from shore mistook the blind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>
+entrance for the real one. Both anchors were at
+the time ready for letting go, and the moment the
+mistake was noticed were run out. But as the
+vessel swung to, her stern came down on the rocks,
+and for nearly three hours bumped heavily. By
+the help of Captain Bartlett and some sixty men
+she was eventually warped safely off; but it was
+found necessary, in the dry dock at St. Johns, to
+replace 35 feet of her keel.</p>
+
+<p>Rough weather characterized our journey south,
+and, indeed, often rendered it very difficult getting
+round the great capes at all. We revisited, where
+possible, all the places we visited going north, and
+also others we had been obliged to pass by. Thus
+we saw again many of our former patients, distributed
+to many the clothing we were able to allot
+them, and also had the joy of seeing once again,
+before winter set in, some of those who were commencing
+in earnest to live consecrated lives. When
+the weather kept us longer than we intended in a
+harbour, we brought into use our magic lantern, for
+which we had some beautiful slides of the life of
+Christ, Bible lands, and some simple stories. This
+never failed to bring a crowd together, even if sleeping
+the night in the building became necessary for
+those who came from too far to return; and, indeed,
+we eventually often preceded our services with the
+views through the magic lantern.</p>
+
+<p>On Thursday, October 19th, we once more steamed
+into Battle Harbour, where we found the <em>Albert</em> had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>
+preceded us by a couple of days. Dr. Bobardt and
+the sisters were still busy and in good health. Hospital
+had been full all the time, and thirty-nine in-patients
+had been treated. Only one other death had
+occurred in hospital—a young girl from a schooner,
+who had died of cellulitis from neglected sores, which
+had assumed the characteristics of erysipelas. We
+were delighted to hear that the fishery here had been
+good. Mr. Hall, the agent, had again been first away
+with a steamer loaded for market. After all the
+time and attention he had so generously bestowed
+on our work, by lending the launch when it could be
+spared, by loan of men for the hospital, by entertaining
+nurses, doctors, and others, we could but rejoice
+that his fishery had been a really successful
+one. Our only regret now was that no hospital
+could be kept open during this winter.</p>
+
+<p>Bad weather prevailed during our journey to St.
+Johns. The <em>Albert</em>, in a gale, lost her boom, and
+blew away some canvas, while the delays to the
+<em>Princess May</em> on that coast, where no telegraphic
+communication exists, gave rise to the impression
+that she was lost with all hands, an impression
+heightened by the fact that the mail steamer, which
+had encountered the same gale in the Straits of Belle
+Isle, had noticed in the sea a small boat’s flag and
+flagpole resembling ours. Unfortunately, therefore,
+it appeared in the English dailies that we were missing.
+Except losing a good spirit compass and loose
+deck paraphernalia, we had suffered no inconveniences.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>
+Indeed, being forced to shelter in so many
+of the small harbours along the French shore, gave
+us a valuable insight into the lives of the out-harbour
+people of Newfoundland, and also the opportunities
+of helping many who need it quite as much as do
+some on the Labrador.</p>
+
+<p>At Toulinguet, on November 3rd, we met our old
+friend Captain Taylor, of the mail steamer <em>Virginia
+Lake</em>, who showed us a written commission to search
+all the islands for us between certain latitudes.
+Thence we wired our whereabouts to St. Johns, but
+we heard subsequently that that kindly office had
+been performed for us the day previously by the
+captain of a schooner, who had passed us on his way
+south. The sealing steamer <em>Neptune</em> gave us a line
+across Trinity and Conception Bays, and so, on the
+7th, we ended our cruise for 1893 in St. Johns
+Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>We found St. Johns in the excitement of a general
+election, and it seemed as if there was little likelihood
+of our getting an audience to listen to a report
+of the season’s work. However, Sir William Whiteway
+kindly placed at our disposal the “Star-of-the-Sea”
+Hall, and His Excellency Sir Terence O’Brien
+consented to preside at an evening meeting. By the
+help of some good friends in St. Johns, some of our
+most successful photographic plates were turned into
+lantern slides; and not only was the large hall filled
+with friends and sympathisers, but one hundred and
+fifty dollars were realized for the funds.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span></p>
+
+<p>The <em>Albert</em> sailed for home, having on board Dr.
+Curwen and the two nurses, on Tuesday, December
+28th, and after a wonderful passage, entered
+Great Yarmouth Harbour on the thirteenth day,
+having accomplished the long run at an average
+pace of nine English miles or 7·5 knots per hour.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_157">
+<img src="images/i_157.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="439">
+<p class="caption center"> A Team of Dogs in Harness.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>ON DOGS AND DIFFICULTIES</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Esquimaux dog, unlike his Newfoundland
+congener, is by no means a fiction, being an
+ubiquitous feature of Esquimaux life. Indeed, being
+musical like his master, his propensity for nocturnal
+chorus keeps him constantly in evidence; and, though
+he is never heard to bark, he manages often to leave
+a deep impression on an incautious stranger.</p>
+
+<p>On his dog’s pluck and endurance the master’s
+safety often depends, and to his marvellous instinct
+for finding human habitations many a man, hopelessly
+lost in a snowstorm on the icefield, owes his
+existence. Yet the Eskimo, finding it ample trouble
+to satisfy his own needs, never adds to his trouble
+by feeding his dogs in summer time, with the result<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>
+that the exigencies of existence have considerably
+sharpened their faculties.</p>
+
+<p>To look at, they closely resemble the grey wolf of
+the prairie, and wolves mingling with the team would
+scarcely be recognised by an untrained eye. Usually
+the dogs wander in summer around the land-wash,
+in troops of say fifty, eating the offal below the fish
+stages; or when caplin schools are close inshore,
+they wade into the water and swallow the fish alive.
+Always lean and lank at this time of the year, they
+never neglect to lay up against an evil day, a fact
+that becomes most ludicrously apparent on these occasions,
+for they “swells wisibly.”</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most interesting sight is to see them
+catching flounders. The fish lie buried in the sand
+in shallow water, and as the dog’s paw comes down
+on one it struggles to get away. He then literally
+“puts his foot down,” and after it his head, which
+disappears under water only to reappear with a
+struggling victim. This is carried kicking to the
+land, to be devoured at leisure.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the chapel at the Moravian station of
+Hopedale was one day accidentally left ajar. Such
+a golden opportunity for a meal was not to be wasted,
+and a company of dogs soon found its way in. Some
+tempting hymn-books and litanies were shortly
+brought to light, redolent with blubber from the
+thumbs of the worshippers. Needless to say they
+were sacrificed at the only shrine dogs recognise.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion a similar oversight let them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>
+into the tenderly-nurtured kitchen garden of the
+Brethren. The dogs rased the cabbages to the ground,
+and even carried away with them the few highly-prized
+wurzels.</p>
+
+<p>Modesty is a virtue of which the Eskimo dog
+is seldom guilty. I was visiting one day a bedridden
+patient. As the outer door opened, a fragrant
+scent as of a dinner preparing was wafted outward.
+Suddenly an avalanche swept me off my legs, and a
+pack of dogs, whisking the stew-pot off the fire, began
+to fight savagely over its contents, the more so as
+each, having burnt its nose in the boiling liquid,
+attributed his affliction to his neighbour. Meanwhile
+the house filling with steam and Eskimo imprecations,
+the latter rendered forcible by long harpoon
+handles, made me almost sorry I had called.</p>
+
+<p>An Eskimo’s financial condition may be gauged by
+the number of his dogs, and no one with less than
+six would rank as “carriage folk.” Eight to thirteen
+normally form a team, each being harnessed, by a
+single walrus hide trace of a different length, to the
+komatik. The leader will be some twenty-six yards
+away, which enables the team to clamber over or
+round hummocky ice. The driver on these occasions
+jumps off to help the sleigh over, while, to prevent
+breaking, the komatik is made of numbers of short
+wide cross boards lashed by strong tendons across
+two longitudinal pieces, no nails being used. The
+runners are shod with ribs of whale, with iron, or
+with mud. A slot is made in the snow and filled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>
+with soft mud, which at once freezes. This is next
+frozen on to the wood, and then planed or chopped
+smooth with an adze. As there are no reins, the
+leading dog is trained to obey the voice. At the
+shout “Auk” he goes to the right, and at “Ra” to
+the left, and so on, the others all following him. If
+those behind are not pulling well, the leader will
+drop back among them and bite at them. They
+always pull in the same place in a team. Thus three
+dogs, the whole team of a poor man, were lent to
+pull with six others. They were first placed in front,
+but would not pull, being frightened at so many dogs
+behind them. When, however, the leader was left in
+front and the other two put last of all, the whole
+team ran capitally. Mr. Young tells us he once put
+a young dog in front of his old leader, a magnificent
+old fellow on whom he always could rely in danger.
+Before he had, however, mounted the komatik, he
+found the pup scampering away loose—the leader
+had bitten through the traces. He refastened it three
+times, always with the same result. At last he gave
+his old leader a good whipping. The old dog’s spirit
+was completely broken by this treatment, and it so
+felt its double disgrace, it was never, to the day of
+its death, the same brave, trusty dog.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs greatly enjoy their work, and when
+harnessed in get tremendously excited, at times even
+turning on their own drivers. To correct them a
+short whip, with an enormously long lash, all of
+walrus hide, is so dexterously used that an expert<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>
+driver can flick a piece out of any particular dog’s
+ear.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally, a refractory dog is pulled in by its
+trace for punishment. They know the meaning of
+this, and anticipate the beating by a lively howling;
+so that merely to shorten a trace, may exert a good
+moral effect on a team.</p>
+
+<p>The “trail” is usually over the frozen sea, the land
+being too uneven. Good dogs will cover from 70
+to 100 miles in a day. When starting in the morning
+the snow is covered with little icicles, formed by the
+mid-day sun melting the frozen surface. As this
+is apt to make the feet of the dogs bleed, they are
+shod with a bag of seal-skin, tied round the ankle.
+Three small holes are cut for the claws. A pup
+shod for the first time, holds up his paws in the air
+alternately; but once he learns to appreciate the fact
+that shoes save his feet from being cut, though he
+will always eat any ordinary piece of skin, such as
+on a kayak or a skin boot, he rarely eats his own
+shoes. They do, however, bite at, and eat the harness,
+especially of the dog in front of them. Mr. Young<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+tells of a big dog which, though apparently always
+hard at work, never seemed to get tired like the rest.
+It always seemed to strain at its trace, and kept
+looking round, apparently for the driver’s approval.
+His suspicions, however, were aroused, and one day,
+cutting loose the trace, he fastened it by a single
+thread to the komatik. Sure enough, the dog<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>
+strained and worked as hard as ever, but it <em>never
+broke the single thread</em>.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> <em>Stories from Indian Wigwams</em>, R.T.S., by Rev. Egerton Young.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>When the ice is good, dogs will maintain eight
+miles an hour, at other times they can only advance
+at a walk; while, yet again, when the ice is surging
+up and down over the sea, and wind and snow
+are against them, the weight of the sleigh will even
+drag them backwards. These dogs are exceedingly
+heavy, and their dragging power is enormous. It
+takes a full-grown man to hold one in leash. A
+team of fifteen dogs took six people on the sleigh
+“like a house on fire.” They are very quick to
+recognise the danger of being cut off from the land,
+especially when water comes over the ice, and they
+will then throw their whole strength into the work.
+Many times when a driver, overtaken by night, perhaps
+having missed the trail from heavy snow, and
+quite exhausted gives up the unequal struggle, the
+unerring instinct of the dogs finds full play, and
+they rarely fail to reach shelter of some kind. At
+night the traces are unhitched and stamped down
+into the snow, for lack of anything to tie them to.
+This keeps them from straying. Their dole of food
+is then given them, probably rotten caplin and seal
+blubber; after which they sleep out on the snow,
+even when the temperature is 50° below zero. Yet
+if other dogs are near, and they can get at them,
+most of the night will be spent fighting. It is often
+the capacity for carrying food for the dogs that
+limits the journey. To prevent this, the Moravians<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>
+make depôts of dog food along the coast during
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>One day an old Eskimo arrived at Nachvak from
+Cape Chidley, a distance of about 100 miles. When
+asked where his dog food was, he answered, “Me
+go home to-morrow, then feed them,” showing the
+power of endurance of these dogs. On one occasion
+during a long journey a traveller (P. Mackenzie)
+shot some caribou deer, and taking all the meat he
+wanted, pursued his journey. While building his
+snow hut for the night, a fresh herd of deer passed
+within scent of the dogs. All, with the exception
+of their leader, a small bitch, managed to free their
+traces and gave chase. By chance they came on
+the dead quarry, and, falling to, at once gorged
+themselves on it. As they, returned to the camp,
+one large powerful dog was observed carrying a
+whole haunch in his mouth, and was seen to go
+and lay it down in reach of the still captive little
+leader.</p>
+
+<p>These dogs can be dangerous at times. Once the
+team of a settler living in Seal Islands ran away.
+They came back savage as wolves, and it transpired
+that they had killed and eaten a little girl, of seven
+years old, while away. Of course their owner was
+forced to shoot them. This tendency to wander was
+recently put to good use. A solitary settler and his
+wife were suddenly struck down with influenza. The
+man developed lung symptoms, and the woman also
+became too ill to feed either herself or him. She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>
+could hardly crawl as far as the cupboard for food;
+and they both stood in great danger of being starved,
+though food was in the house. In this extremity
+the woman, who could write, scribbled on a piece
+of paper, “Come over quickly,” and tied it round
+one of the dog’s necks. The dog carried it to the
+nearest neighbour, a distance of ten miles over the
+ice, and eventually returned with help. Possibly as
+the old couple could no longer get about to give the
+dogs food, that might account for its setting off for
+another house.</p>
+
+<p>In the water the Eskimo dog is quite at home. I
+have known them swim home from a desert island
+a good mile from land, and have watched them
+playfully chasing one another’s tails as they swam
+about in that cold water.</p>
+
+<p>Fighting, however, is their chief diversion. Each
+team always has its king, who maintains his position
+solely by his might. I have watched from a boat
+a pack banished to an island in summer to keep them
+out of mischief. As we rowed round, a fine young
+dog, with the only female close alongside, moved by
+curiosity followed us out to the end of every little
+promontory, but the rest all maintained a respectful
+distance behind. Next week, when we passed again,
+we found he had been deposed, and then woe betide
+him for some time. The entire pack seem to combine
+to pay off their pent-up grudges against him,
+and at times he is so harried he takes to the water.
+I have watched a late leader standing up to his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>
+shoulders in water eyeing his tormentors to see if
+he could escape unobserved; but every attempt he
+made to come ashore a combined rush was made,
+and he was forced to retire again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_165">
+<img src="images/i_165.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="600">
+<p class="caption center"> Eskimo Family.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At night on travel a snow hut is built. Half an
+hour is long enough for this. The snow is cut in
+blocks—nowadays usually with an old cavalry
+sabre—from the inside of the circle chosen for the
+house. Thus the hut goes down and up at the same
+time. A hole is left at the top for the air, while a
+block is cut to fit into the door from the outside, after
+all are in. If a tent is carried, it is of the usual
+reindeer skins, sewn together with tendons. The
+sleeping bag is made of seal-skin with the hair outside,
+and lined with reindeer skin with the hair inside.
+Almost any cold can be borne in it; and if your
+family are travelling with you, and share your bag,
+they are then said to be positively warm. The
+skin boots always worn are so exquisitely sewn, that,
+like the kayaks, they are quite watertight.</p>
+
+<p>However, there is no water in Labrador in winter,
+for even the perspiration from the men’s bodies, if
+they do violent work, freezes inside the clothing; and,
+as in cases of Arctic explorers, it may become necessary
+to take off one’s clothes at night to hammer out
+the ice from the inside.</p>
+
+<p>To do this sewing it is necessary to chew the
+edges of the skins soft. One woman said to me,
+“Me no good now,” showing me that her teeth
+were all too far worn down to be of any use in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>
+boot-making. The Eskimo’s teeth meet one another,
+and do not overhang like Europeans’. Soft
+bread gets so hard frozen that biscuits have to be
+carried, which, with lumps of meat, are stowed away
+under their clothes next the skin, in order to keep
+it soft. Spirits even will freeze in the bottle; but
+neither whites nor Eskimo carry alcohol, or dare
+resort to it in cold weather, if they had it. These
+people form an excellent apology for total abstinence,
+as do the Laps, who drink only coffee. In England
+and the United States cold weather is used as
+an apology for whisky. Drink soon destroys the
+Eskimo. Yet they, like white men, willingly become
+its slaves. They have even buried in their oil casks,
+water, molasses, and old mouldy biscuits, in order to
+get fermented liquor, when once habituated to it.</p>
+
+<p>The Moravians have, however, kept the traffic in
+check, partly by not teaching the Eskimo English,
+and partly by Christian teaching. One dear old
+fellow—named Zacharias—had in his early days
+been expelled by the Eskimo from Okkak for drunkenness
+and being a nuisance to the community.
+Becoming a Christian under the preaching at Hopedale,
+he was now seeking to get back to Okkak to
+show them what the grace of God can do in the
+dark heart of a drunken Eskimo. Very practical
+are some of these Eskimo Christians. One Nathaniel
+last winter, while going to his sealing ground, was
+carried off to sea by the ice drifting off. When
+eventually he managed to escape, he told the missionaries:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>
+“I felt like Peter. I could not pray,
+though I thought I must die. I had not lived a good
+life.” On another occasion a woman actually went
+and gave back all the property she had won from
+another by gambling, when told it was displeasing
+to God.</p>
+
+<p>The following translation of letters from some
+much respected leaders among them, gives an insight
+into their feelings and ideas. One wrote to us
+as follows: “In spirit I am among you, my fellow-servants.
+Only a little I want to say to you. Because
+the Lord, He helps us, you as well as us—we
+in Labrador. In one faith and love in that which
+Jesus has wrought for us, that we can walk through
+Him that strengthens us. Once more we have reason
+to be thankful, because the physician came; we are
+often reminded that our souls also must have medicine,
+<em>i.e.</em> the Word of God. I salute you all. The
+Lord may help every one of us. You as well as
+me. Zacharias. The one that is in Hopedale.”</p>
+
+<p>Another wrote, “My wife and I and all the Eskimo
+wish very sincerely to thank all the good believers
+on the other side of the sea, who in their love have
+thought of us, and sent a doctor to help and assist us
+in our illness. We do not understand the language of
+those you have sent here, yet we rejoice that they are
+preaching the Word of God faithfully to the many
+fishermen who work along the Labrador. My prayer
+and wish are that the Lord will protect them on
+their journey, and bless you and them in the work.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>
+My wife and I greet all those who love the Lord Jesus
+Christ.”</p>
+
+<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Daniel and Josephina.</span>”</p>
+
+<p>When the missionaries desire to punish an Eskimo,
+it is generally done by (1) refusing to allow him
+personally in the store; (2) ejecting him from the
+choir or band; (3) cutting him off from communion.
+An Eskimo, never having severer punishment, feels
+each of these very acutely.</p>
+
+<p>Cartwright punished them much more summarily.
+In his dry way, he remarks: “July 1. Having
+reproved an Eskimo in a very angry tone for stealing
+a skein of thread, I gave him a few strokes
+with a stick. He instantly made resistance; when
+catching him in my arms, I gave him a cross buttock
+(a method of throwing unknown to them), and
+pitched him with great force head first out of my
+tent. The rest applauded my action as just, and
+had a high opinion of my lenity.”</p>
+
+<p>Conveying Bible ideas to the Eskimo has not
+been easy. It must be remembered they have never
+seen sheep or lambs, horse or mule, fruit tree or
+corn, sowing or harvest. Nor have they much idea
+of kindness to animals at all. Every animal but a
+dog is to be killed, and even their dogs are to be
+kept at a considerable distance. But they are themselves
+very grateful for kindness, as the above
+extracts show.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>ON SEALS AND SEALERS</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_171">
+<img src="images/i_171.jpg" alt="" width="390" height="600">
+<p class="caption center">The <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Sir Donald</em>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The hair seal, locally “swile,” affords to the Newfoundland
+fisherman almost the only means of work in winter which will help him
+to eke out the meagre living provided by his Labrador voyages. True,
+there is a home frozen-herring trade, but it is limited to the west
+coast; and also the new railway employs a certain number of men as long
+as the inclemencies of winter allow work to proceed. But it is to the
+spring sealing, or “going to the ice,” as they call it, that most look
+for the extra few dollars to help fill the children’s mouths. Not long
+ago every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> one could go
+to the ice, for then only sailing-boats went, and the wealth reaped
+from the voyages passed mostly into the fishermen’s pockets. Now all is
+revolutionized, and the sealing is in the hands of half-a-dozen firms,
+that send out big steamers, carrying crews numbering as many as three
+hundred men. Moreover, the value of seal-oil has greatly decreased, and
+the expenses of the steamers eat up much of the profit. There are not a
+few whom one hears growling, “Steam has ruined Newfoundland.”</p>
+
+<p>The hair seal, “Phoca Greenlandica,” must not be
+confounded with the fur seal of the Pacific, for
+though the former is found in the Pacific, the latter
+is never found in the North Atlantic. The fur seal
+is as a rule larger, has much longer hands and feet
+in proportion to his body, and also a much longer
+neck. He is apparently a much more powerful
+swimmer. There are, however, several kinds of
+hair seal. The largest is the hood seal. A truly
+magnificent animal, and one that shows much
+courage in defending himself against his enemies.
+Sitting up on his tail and hind legs, he defends
+himself with teeth and flippers, protecting his head
+from injury by blowing out a bladder-shaped and
+shot-proof excrescence on it. The usual method to
+kill a seal is to hit it upon the nose with a club,
+called a seal-bat, but when once fairly roused the
+bull hood seal is invulnerable there. An old sealer
+described to me a battle between one of these fellows
+and a polar bear, in which he told us the seal only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>
+yielded to be eaten after a prolonged and bloody
+struggle. It takes two men at least to kill one, for
+one man has to divert the animal’s attention by
+striking its tail, while the other endeavours to hit
+it under the jaw as it turns round.</p>
+
+<p>The most important hair seal, however, is the
+harp. It is the variety which resort to the ice to
+breed in such countless thousands, and which the
+sealing vessels go out in pursuit of. The process
+of breeding is most interesting. The following account
+was given me by Captain Blandford, of Newfoundland,
+perhaps the most successful of all the
+bold sealing captains:—</p>
+
+<p>“Soon after we got jammed in the ice there appeared
+from the water four or five old seals, which
+scrambled up on to its surface. Within five minutes
+there were 500 seals on it, and in half an hour
+200,000 as nearly as we could guess. Scarcely had
+they come to rest on the ice when they commenced
+throwing their young, and at once, after whelping,
+those close to us, being somewhat frightened by the
+ship, jumped back into the sea, leaving the little
+seals whimpering exactly like babies.”</p>
+
+<p>The young are born about the 1st of March, and
+are very small, fat, and snowy white, remaining so
+up till the 20th to 25th, <em>i.e.</em> about three weeks, between
+which date and the 1st of April they are big
+enough to take to the water. During this period they
+are known as “whitecoats.” They grow so rapidly
+that you can almost see them growing, though on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>
+the above occasion those close to the ship did not
+grow nearly as rapidly as those farther away, for the
+dams were shy about coming to give them suck.</p>
+
+<p>The “whitecoats” are not large enough to kill until
+they are fourteen days’ old, so that on this occasion
+the crew had to wait. Now, however, by law no
+sailing vessel may leave for the ice until the 8th of
+March, and no steamer till the 12th, under a penalty
+of $2,000, which gives the seals a chance to get
+sizeable; nor is a vessel now allowed to make a
+second voyage the same year, if she has once come
+back loaded. This prevents the extermination of the
+mother seals. Great excitement always exists when
+the sealers are about to start; sometimes it is necessary
+to cut their way out of the harbour, in which
+they have been imprisoned during the winter months,
+with dynamite, saws, and crowbars, the way being
+cleared beforehand, that not an hour may be lost
+after the clocks announce midnight of the 11th.
+This year, 1894, while blasting a way out of the ice
+in Greenspond Harbour, the <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Walrus</em> was severely
+damaged by the explosion of the dynamite, which
+shattered her bows, and killed some of her men.
+The ice was ten feet thick.</p>
+
+<p>The vessels may start from any part of the island,
+north or south, but no one place is always best, the
+position of the seals varying every season. There is
+much competition to get a place among the crews,
+and the men are carefully selected for their pluck,
+energy, experience, and physical capacities. These<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>
+are queer-looking craft to the unaccustomed eye
+these steam sealers of about 300 to 400 tons burden,
+with their outside thick sheathing of hard wood,
+called “ice chocks,” and their huge double stems,
+filled between with from nine to twelve feet of
+solid oak, built for charging through floe ice. For
+when shut in the steamer will back far enough to
+gain good impetus, and then dash full at the weakest
+part of the floe. Usually the sloping forepost
+allows the vessel to rise up on to the ice, the
+great weight then breaking down into clear water.
+Anything loose on deck is of course upset, as are
+any of the crew who happen not to be holding
+some support. All are rigged with three masts,
+and can sail as well as steam; and the screw
+being fixed in a slot can easily be pulled up out of
+the water at these times. Each masthead is fitted
+with a barrel or crow’s nest, from which a careful
+look-out for seals is constantly maintained. When
+once discovered, the next thing is to keep them to
+yourself, and, if possible, mislead any other vessels
+near, who might be apt to join in and so lessen
+your prize. A captain, well known for his success,
+was lately dogged in this way by a fresh hand. To
+mislead his rival the captain steamed into one of the
+large bays, where, it so happened, he got frozen in
+while the raw hand, turning out, caught a full
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Once alongside the floe, the men jump off on to the
+ice, and at once the work begins. Sometimes they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>
+work in pairs, one man shooting the seals, and his
+chum, who is called “the dog,” following up, cutting
+off the tail from the dead seal to “mark it,” and then
+gathering them in heaps, and putting up a pole with
+a flag or a piece of liver as a claim. These are
+then said to be “panned.” This is technically called
+“swatching.” When shooting, 1,400 seals in a day
+is good work for a crew, though they have killed
+3,000; but when it is only necessary to “club” them
+with the seal-bat, 25,000 have been killed in a day,
+and 47,000 in two days. Sculping (scalping?) is
+the next process—that is taking off the skin and
+fat. This scarcely takes a minute. The seal is
+thrown on its back, ripped up from chin to tail,
+and the fat and skin, known as the “pelt,” are torn
+off. The body is no use, and is left on the ice,
+except that occasionally the hearts are cut out and
+strung on the hunter’s belts, as a reserve of food
+in case of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>The mother seals show great sagacity in finding
+the particular hole, through which she comes and
+goes for food, among so many thousand others, and
+at once she finds her own little white pup. They
+will evince much self-sacrifice in trying to rescue
+their offspring from danger, at times carrying them
+in their fore flippers to escape being nipped by ice,
+or drawing them into the water to teach them to
+swim. Alas, after a sealer’s visit she will only find
+a quivering red corpse when she returns. Let us
+hope she does not recognise it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p>
+
+<p>When another crew is also at work on the same
+patch of seals the greatest expedition is naturally
+used, and under these circumstances the seals will
+often only be “batted” and stunned, not stabbed
+to the heart as well, before being skinned. It is
+this that has given rise to the charges of cruelty,
+for the naked body has been seen to move around
+after the operation. Otherwise there is no more
+cruelty in killing seals than in killing cattle or
+poultry, and any man who is humane in one will
+naturally be humane in the other; nor do I think
+you will find anywhere a more humane set of
+men than you will among Newfoundland fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>Captain X. was once just forcing his way through
+ice towards a pack of seals when he sighted a rival
+vessel coming up under his lee. Backing out, he
+at once altered his course away from the seals to
+mislead the other, but was too late to prevent them
+sighting his seals. The second vessel, being much
+faster, now ran in between my friend and the ice,
+and passing him on the starboard side gave the
+order “hard a starboard” to force him out from his
+own cutting. Incensed at this, Captain X. from the
+barrel shouted “hard a port,” and went straight for
+his rival’s stem. Fortunately an intervening pan of
+ice prevented a fatal accident, but he ran his bowsprit
+well over the other’s counter. All hands from
+the foremost vessel were overboard and hard at work
+killing and panning seals before Captain X. could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>
+land his men; so he shouted, as his final order,
+“Hand aboard the dead seals; never mind killing
+live ones,” and then, calmly descending, went and
+had refreshments with the other captain in the other
+vessel’s cabin, while the crews were left to fight it
+out as best they could. They are a brave, generous,
+and skilful set of men, these sealing captains, and
+reck little of danger or hardship.</p>
+
+<p>Work proceeds during the night by torchlight, and
+the scattered fires, with their ruddy glow on the
+heaps of dead seals and uncouth-looking figures at
+work, must present indeed a weird sight. Now the
+pelts have to be brought back to the ship; and in
+this work the physical capacities of each hunter
+are tried to the utmost. Six pelts is a full “tow”
+for one man. Often when the ice is hummocky, or
+perhaps broken up into pieces, called “slob” ice,
+and it is necessary to jump from pan to pan, or
+again when the distance from the ship is long, and
+the approach of night or the fog render travelling
+almost impossible, are these men tempted to abandon
+the hardly-won pelts, and get home themselves to
+the ship and safety.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes one hunter will be long adrift from
+the steamer, and all the rest being back, and all
+the seals in that patch boarded, the captain is
+anxious to get off—how anxious, if the patch was
+a small one and other seals are near, perhaps only
+a sealing captain knows,—for all ships must be
+home by April 21st, full or empty. Yet though so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>
+much depends on it a stray hunter has never yet
+been abandoned. It costs a large sum to send these
+vessels to the ice, and a “clean ship” means a
+big loss to the merchant, and no money for the
+men.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_188">
+<img src="images/i_188.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="481">
+<p class="caption center">Eskimo on an Island near Okkak.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sharks, even in these latitudes, are not slow to
+gather at the smell of slaughter, and can be caught
+with boathooks between the pans. It is not a rare
+thing for men to slip off the pans into the water,
+and it requires no little skill to get out again without
+help; for the water, naturally, is very cold,
+and one is apt again and again to slip off back
+into the water while trying to climb on to the ice.
+Acts of great heroism are performed sometimes in
+rescuing a man thus endangered; in one case, the
+pans being very small, it was not possible to stand
+on one in order to pull the man out. The rescuer,
+therefore, quickly throwing off his outer garments,
+came jumping from piece to piece, making
+a grab at the struggling man as he passed, trying
+to push him on far enough for him to catch hold.
+The second run he succeeded, but, of course, himself
+ran great peril in the attempt. The vessels
+eventually, loaded to the gunwales if they have
+been fortunate, return to St. Johns, every hole and
+corner being used for stowing the pelts, so that at
+times the crew will have to sleep wherever they
+can find a dry spot, even on deck or in the boats.</p>
+
+<p>Once in harbour, the fat is separated and put into
+enormous vats, the oil being squeezed out from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>
+blubber by their own weight, and being eventually
+drawn off, clarified, and sold. Now, however, the
+blubber is usually “rendered” by means of a steam
+mincer. The skins are salted without being stretched,
+and are then exported “green,” for making into
+leather for boot tops, gloves, etc. When the white
+coat is a year old, he is dark in colour on the
+back, lighter on the belly, and is known as a
+“bedlamer harp.” When he is three years old, a
+large black saddle-shaped mark begins to appear over
+his back, and he is called a full “bedlamer.” When
+he is four years old, the saddle is fully and clearly
+marked, and the seal is then known as the “old
+harp.”</p>
+
+<p>Seals, as is well known to those who visit Zoological
+Gardens, are very easily tamed, and display
+almost the sagacity of dogs. Tales are told of seals
+which have become so thoroughly tame that they
+will come and lie before the fire, making friends with
+the dog and cat; while one, when it had been found
+too expensive to keep, and had been taken out to
+sea and dropped overboard, followed the boat ashore
+again and again, even getting in at the window
+when the door had been shut against it. The seal
+is used by the Eskimo for nearly everything. The
+stretched coat of the bowel serves instead of glass.
+Their boats are entirely of skin. Their clothing
+almost all skin. Their winter food almost all seal meat
+and blubber. Dog food, dog harness, dog whips,
+etc., are all of seal, or of walrus hide. Moreover, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>
+the settlers, their skins for boots and their fat for
+oil are invaluable.</p>
+
+<p>In Labrador the “old harps” are caught either
+in the fall or spring, when the sea is first freezing
+over or the ice first breaking up, and always along
+shore, in one of the following ways. Strong twine
+nets, with very large meshes, are anchored out on the
+bottom in about twenty to thirty fathoms of water,
+off prominent headlands, or in the mouths of bays
+and inlets known to be frequented by seals. These
+are buoyed on the surface, and in these the seals
+mesh and drown themselves. This industry is attended
+with much danger and hardship, for it involves
+rowing out in all weathers in small boats to
+clear the nets. Sometimes the buoys are under the
+ice, and the process known as “creeping” has to be
+undertaken to find the nets at all, for it will not do
+to lose these most valuable possessions.</p>
+
+<p>If the nets are not recovered by New Year’s Day,
+they are lost; yet occasionally they may be recovered
+immediately the ice goes in April, when,
+the men tell me, both nets and seals in them are
+good; but if much time elapses after the floe drifts
+off, both rot rapidly and are destroyed by animalculæ.</p>
+
+<p>Often hours must be spent “creeping,” and then,
+perhaps, only some one else’s nets are taken, while all
+the while each must be carefully watching the other
+to see he is not getting frostbitten. The nose, ears,
+or chin will become frozen unknown to the owner<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>
+and another will cry out “your ears are dead,” the
+parts having turned snowy white. Then begins the
+painful and tedious process of rubbing the part with
+snow—woe betide the sufferer who goes in a heated
+room, or uses hot water; for a certainty he will lose
+his ears or his nose—then the creeping must be
+again proceeded with; or when the nets are partly
+hauled bad weather will overtake them, perhaps a
+sudden squall from the high land sweeps down on the
+little open boat, and the tragedy of “the three fishers”
+is apt to be enacted over again. In one case, a man
+described to me how, when out with his brother
+and another man, while in the act of hauling into
+the boat a square flipper seal of larger size than
+usual, the little craft capsized, and his brother, getting
+cramp from cold, slipped off the bottom of the
+boat to which all three were clinging. Fortunately,
+the other two managed, it being a calm day, to hold
+on till a rescue was effected. It is cold work at
+best, and, as one stalwart fellow said, “jest a bit
+hard, that when a man comes home real hungry it
+should take him half an hour to get the ice off his
+face before he can find his mouth.” “Yes,” chimed
+in another, “I lost two toes and this ear,” showing
+that he had been cropped as if at the pillory.
+I have myself seen the frozen breath hanging from
+men’s beards and moustaches till, from nose to
+chest, it was one huge white mass.</p>
+
+<p>The easier way of catching the “old harps” is
+with a submerged room of net, resembling the cod-trap,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>
+with the difference that the wall which is on
+the side the seals enter from is lowered to the bottom.
+A watch is kept from the shore, and as soon as the
+seals enter the room a rope attached to this wall is
+wound up on a capstan on the land, and the seals
+are thus imprisoned. They are now given time to
+entangle themselves in the net, and so get drowned,
+or the boat rows off and the hunter shoots the seal
+before taking it out of the water; for the seals
+would bite badly if given the chance. The net is
+thirty to forty fathoms deep, and is set in about
+six to ten fathoms of water.</p>
+
+<p>The last variety of hair seal is known as the
+“bay seal.” It frequents the shores, bays, and
+mouths of fresh-water rivers, up which it breeds,
+all the summer, and is caught either in mesh nets, or
+shot from a boat as it puts up its head to breathe.
+This feat is rendered more easy by the natural
+curiosity of the seal. As soon as it spies the boat
+it raises its head and shoulders out of water to get
+a good view of the stranger. If you now remain
+quite still, and especially if you can imitate the
+“Hough, hough” of the animal, it will dive down
+and in a minute come up nearer the boat. I have
+been almost ashamed to shoot as it opened its large,
+human eyes, so full of inquisitiveness. “Bang!”
+If you are a good shot, your seal will be dead, a bullet
+through his brain, and you must at once row
+and pick him up while his few kicks keep him
+afloat. I remember seeing one sink after being shot,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span>
+as we rowed off to the <em>Princess May</em> from the shore
+one day. We stopped over the spot, and peering
+down into the crystal water, could see him ten
+fathoms down. Suddenly, one last kick—only it
+seemed a slight movement—and the carcase rose to
+the surface for the last time. Up, up! We watched
+it gyrating round and round, and as it reached the
+surface, grabbed hold of one flipper and slung it
+into the boat. We had one or two good meals off
+that fellow, for we hung him up from our forestay,
+and the frosty air kept him sweet and fresh as long
+as we needed him. Had he not arisen we should
+have got him up by means of our “jiggers,” <em>i.e.</em>, our
+heavy leaded hooks.</p>
+
+<p>The Eskimo harpoon their seals from the kayak,
+occasionally shooting it first; but shooting accurately
+from a kayak is no easy matter. The harpoon is
+made of light wood, about three feet in length. On
+the end of this is fixed a whole walrus tusk, to carry
+the loose barbed iron top, and also to weight it and
+carry it truly home. As soon as the seal is struck
+it dives, taking the harpoon with it, but as the harpoon
+is attached by about twenty fathoms of walrus
+hide to an inflated air-tight seal-skin, the hunter
+spies it, as soon as it comes up, even if it ever
+succeeds in carrying the buoy down. A few strokes
+of the paddle brings the kayak once more alongside,
+and the seal is soon put <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">hors de combat</i> with a lance,
+lashed on the back of the little boat, and the hunter
+starts for home, or it is towed home alongside the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>
+kayak. When one year old the bay seal is called a
+“jar seal,” and its skin is poor; in the second year
+it is a “doter,” and becoming speckled, in the third
+year, it is a “ranger,” and is then very beautiful,
+being checkered silver and black all over.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_179">
+<img src="images/i_179.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="449">
+<p class="caption center">Eskimo in Reindeer Tent, Okkak.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>ON THE ESQUIMAUX OR ESKIMO</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a still moonlight night, and the <em>Albert</em> lay at
+anchor in one of those numberless creeks in which
+the venturous fishermen hide away their schooners,
+while in their small boats they are snatching from
+the very edges of the reefs their precious fares of
+fish.</p>
+
+<p>We were below decks, dressing the wounds of a
+fisherman in the <em>Albert’s</em> little cabin, the only sounds
+being the moan of my patient or the lapping of the
+water against the ship’s side, when the silence was
+suddenly broken by the sound as of many voices
+singing. The air was very familiar:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">“There’s a land that is fairer than day,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And by faith we can see it afar,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">For our Father dwells over the way</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">To prepare us a dwelling-place there.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mounting the gangway, I found the deck crowded
+by a number of the quaintest little figures. They
+were dressed in skins, with snow-white jumpers
+topped by long pointed cowls standing high up over
+their heads. Some sat cross-legged on the bulwarks
+or hatches, while others, in their seal-skin boots, were
+gliding noiselessly about in the moonlight, till imagination
+conjured up “the merry elves” of childhood.
+The early Norsemen called them skrellings or weaklings.
+They call themselves Innuits, “the people,”
+because they say God went on creating till they appeared,
+then He was satisfied, and created no more.
+Eskimo = raw meat eater, and is a term of opprobrium
+conferred on them by the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>Soon all were down in our main hold, chattering,
+laughing, and pleased as children, at the <em>Albert’s</em> fittings
+and at our attempts to understand their remarks.
+The one that acted as leader spoke a little broken
+English, and from him we learned that they had come
+from a group of islands lying outside us with some
+boat-loads of dry fish for a planter; that they had been
+puzzled by our strange rig, and so had come aboard
+to see us.</p>
+
+<p>When their leader had explained to them that we
+were a “Gospel ship,” and had things to heal the sick,
+their merry, round, flat faces grew sunnier than ever.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>
+All heads were uncovered at once, displaying mops
+of long straight black hair, cut fringe-like level with
+the eyebrows. Then they all broke out singing again,
+squatting all round the hold on their haunches or on
+the floor, while, to our surprise, one seated himself at
+the harmonium and played it excellently, others performing
+on two concertinas and two cornets. They
+sang in parts in their own language, but hymn tunes
+well known to us, so our crew all joined in, and kept
+it up till the watch called “All hands off board.”
+Since then we have seen and learnt much of this
+simple people; “Uskies” the fishermen call them,
+and we all like them greatly.</p>
+
+<p>Not many heathen Eskimo remain in Labrador,
+yet between Ungava and Cape Chidley some are still
+to be found. They recognise a god (Tongarsuk), a
+good spirit, and also lesser spirits (Tongaks), whom
+he sends to tell the priests (angekoks) how to heal
+diseases, and how to tell the weather. The Devil is
+a vague kind of female spirit, apparently unnamed.
+These angekoks are really delphic oracles, who make
+supposititious journeys to the bowels of the earth to
+consult Tongarsuk. The journey must be in winter,
+in the dark at night time, and the angekok remains
+alone in his hut with his head tied between his legs,
+and his arms behind his back, while his soul is off
+to heaven or hell. To become an angekok poglit,
+<em>i.e.</em> fat priest or chief priest, his wandering spirit
+must be dragged by one toe to the sea by a white bear,
+and there swallowed by a sea lion and the same white<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>
+bear. Then it must be spued up and return to his
+body, which is shut up in a dark house. A drum and
+other noises are kept up during the ceremony.<a id="FNanchor_17a" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>They have a vague tradition of a flood, saying
+that the world upset once, and all but one man were
+drowned. They prove this by the fact of shells being
+found high above the sea, and even the remains of a
+whale on a high mountain. They believe in a future
+life and a happier one than this, where there is perpetual
+summer, and they locate it at the bottom of
+the sea, whence they get their richest possessions,
+or in the bowels of the earth. Reindeer are there
+quite common, and their beloved seals are ever ready,
+swimming in a large boiling kettle.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> <em>The Eskimo</em>, by Dr. F. Nansen.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Nansen tells us they thought that all inanimate
+objects had spirits, and that this is the reason that
+they buried with the warrior his boat and weapons,
+and often figures like dolls, possibly to represent
+his wives. I found several of these old graves, and
+two I examined. One, evidently very ancient, was
+perched on a high central promontory, overlooking
+the entrances to two bays; perhaps in order that
+as the harp seals or wild birds passed, the warrior
+might, even in death, look down upon those who of
+yore so oft paid tribute to his skill. The body in
+every grave is simply laid on the surface on its
+back, in its clothes—in one grave a female skeleton
+lay alongside a male one. Over it is built a rude
+structure roofed with large flat stones, so that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>
+view should be unobstructed. In a small cache
+alongside the above grave were two wooden figures
+of females, an ivory harpoon head and the remains
+of the shaft, the skin-cleaning instruments, and the
+remains of a stone lamp.</p>
+
+<p>In another, further south, I found an iron sword
+about three feet long, used for cutting snow blocks
+for snow houses, a dagger with a curved blade,
+a clasp knife, an old pot of iron, a nail or needle
+case, a lead buckle silvered over, a whetstone, and
+a few other simple household implements, while in
+each case the remains of the kayak or canoe, the
+paddle and the harpoon were lying near.</p>
+
+<p>The skipper of a Newfoundland vessel told me
+how one of his men took some frankincense from
+one of these graves. That night the crew were
+startled by one of the hands shouting out, “There
+is a man in the cabin!” though it was all dark
+at the time. A lamp was lit, and the same man
+shouted, “There he goes, up the hatchway!” The
+others chaffed him and blew out the light. Very
+soon shouts were again heard, “There he is, an Eskimo,
+searching in Tom’s bunk.” After that the
+lamp was kept lighted, and next day the grave was
+restored.</p>
+
+<p>The early Moravian missionaries found it very
+difficult to convey to the Eskimo the Bible teachings
+of our Saviour’s love and of God as our
+Father. They had no word for love; neither sheep
+nor lambs, seed-time nor harvest, silver nor gold<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>
+were familiar to them, and all the oriental similes
+of the sacred book were unintelligible. Yet the
+missionaries’ Christ-like lives during 130 years have
+accomplished what their words could not express.</p>
+
+<p>In <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1000 the Eskimo extended as far south as
+Newfoundland. In 1790 a tribe five hundred strong
+dwelt in the Straits of Belle Isle. Now only a few
+dwell south of Hopedale, three hundred miles north
+of the same straits, and only some two to three
+thousand north of that place. Contact with white
+men has killed them off, at times by small-pox or
+diphtheria, but usually by tubercular consumption.
+The two racial tides now meet at Hopedale, and
+here the Eskimo appear least healthy.</p>
+
+<p>The nomad life in skin tents has been abandoned
+for wooden and mud huts. The seal-skin clothes
+have largely given way to inferior cotton and European
+goods. The “blubber” food is largely replaced
+by “flour and molasses.” The art of kayaking is
+nearly lost, and the Eskimo have become less and
+less reliant on their own powers of procuring a
+livelihood, while guns and powder have largely diminished
+the supply of game. This has well been
+exemplified around the mission station of Zoar. The
+Eskimo here had contracted a habit of taking out
+their supplies from the Moravians, but secretly
+traded their fish and fur with the nearest Hudson
+Bay station at Davis Inlet. Thus they ran up large
+debts, which eventually the Brethren refused to increase.
+Soon after, while two missionaries were in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>
+the store, some bullets were fired right through the
+wooden walls. Fortunately no one was hurt. But
+bad feelings had been roused, and at last it was
+found necessary to close these stores altogether,
+with the result that the Eskimo have been <em>obliged
+to leave</em>, and stay where they could buy provisions
+at hand; and now the Eskimo are all gone, and
+the whole station is closed for good. But this is
+only what civilization has done for aboriginal races
+all the world over.</p>
+
+<p>Thank God that in this case the Gospel both preceded
+and accompanied commerce. To this alone
+I attribute the fact that after over 130 years any
+of the Eskimo do now remain. The Gospel has
+been received. Many have passed from darkness
+to light, and so are in a position to correspond to
+or resist the new environment of white men’s customs
+and white men’s whisky. True the Eskimo in
+Labrador are being slowly driven to a last stand.
+Thank God that stand is at Ramah, Hebron, Okkak,
+Hopedale and Nain, around the devoted Christian
+missionaries of the Moravian brethren, who for
+Christ’s sake spend their lives among the hardships
+of this bleak and barren coast; and while
+Beothicks and Red Indians have fallen victims to
+the God of mammon, remnants of this gentle and
+harmless race still persist. Take away these Moravians
+from Labrador, and the days of the Eskimo
+would soon be numbered.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_195">
+<img src="images/i_195.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="423">
+<p class="caption center">Taken from an Eskimo Grave at Long Island.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the eleventh century Thorfinn Karlsefne describes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>
+the Skraellings as “black and ill-favoured,
+with coarse hair on their heads, and large eyes, with
+broad cheeks.” Cartwright, writing in 1790, says
+they were quarrelsome among one another, and
+occasionally thievish. Cranz, in 1760, says they
+were degraded, immoral, and brutish in their heathen
+state. Nansen thinks they led an ideal socialistic
+life, but founded, I think, rather on a basis of inevitable
+union against starvation in bad times than on
+a basis of Divine and brotherly love. They appear
+ever to have been simple and confiding. Karlsefne
+says they came to visit his men in Vinland and
+began to barter.</p>
+
+<p>“These people would rather have red cloth than
+anything else; for this they gave skins and real
+furs. For an entire fur-skin the Skraellings took a
+piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it round
+their heads. Thus went on traffic for a time, then
+the cloth began to fall short among Karlsefne and
+his people, and they cut it asunder into small
+pieces, which were not wider than the breadth of a
+finger, and still the Skraellings gave just as much
+as before, and more.”</p>
+
+<p>According to our code they are very immoral, yet
+seeing the conduct of white men to one another and
+to themselves they always say of a good man, “He
+is like an Innuit” (Eskimo). They themselves have
+no words for cursing, and Nansen says also no
+words of opprobrium, such as liar, scoundrel, or
+rowdy. Recently one in the far north of Labrador,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>
+who already had seven wives, stole his son-in-law’s
+wife also—that is his own daughter. The younger
+man bided his time, and then shot the older one off
+his guard. Some twenty years ago a number came
+south to the most northern Moravian station. One
+had cut on his gun-stock many notches. On being
+asked what these meant, he explained they indicated
+so many men craftily shot. On being told it
+was wrong, he promised not to do it again. Polygamy
+is now done away with, and it is only in
+their fishing-tents that different families sleep together.
+In some tents I visited the only separations
+were marks made on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Yet they have learnt to repent of wrong-doing,
+and all their outbreaks have ended in asking for
+forgiveness. They confess even murder to the missionaries.
+I have met four who have done so.
+In all spiritual matters they implicitly accept the
+Brethren’s teaching; nor do they ever question the
+authority of the Bible; <em>e.g.</em>, one man had a very
+refractory boy, who was always annoying his
+teacher, and wilfully disturbing the whole school.
+His father refused to punish him, for he said he
+thought that must be wrong for a Christian. Nor
+would he alter his decision till Solomon’s maxim
+on that point was shown him in black and white.
+He then at once adopted Solomon’s view of the
+matter, and “appealed to his son’s feelings” with
+a piece of walrus hide.</p>
+
+<p>Other enemies, besides civilization, have helped to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>
+deplete the Eskimo race. The early Vikings harried
+them on their visits to the coast. Thorfinn Karlsefne
+mentions finding five Skraellings sleeping under a
+boat. He adds, his men killed them; and similar
+incidents occurred to others of these rovers. The
+Indians of the interior have always been hostile to
+them, and in their battles with these the Eskimo
+have generally come off second best.</p>
+
+<p>We were shown the spot where tradition has it
+the Eskimo and Montaignais Indians fought their
+last fight for mastery. A story to which the finding
+of many stone arrow heads and knives lends some
+colour. Off the mouth of a long river lies a large
+island, with a smooth central plain, rising at each
+end to high broken rocks. On the outer end clustered
+the humble huts of the Eskimos, with their fishing
+gear lying around. One night, under cover of darkness,
+the Mountaineers crept stealthily down the
+river in their large, double-ended, birch war-canoes,
+and effected a landing, dragging the canoes up after
+them, and then hiding themselves among the rocks.
+Next day, however, the wary little Eskimo discovered
+their arrival, and pluckily determined to attack them
+at once. It is easy to picture the wild scene that
+followed. No doubt the little warriors fought desperately;
+but, against their taller and more powerful
+adversaries, were at a great disadvantage in a hand
+to hand conflict. Many having fallen in the open,
+the remnant sought cover among the rocks at the
+outer end of the island, only to be dislodged and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>
+driven back towards the sea. Here, no doubt, the
+squaws—who still dress like men and partake in all
+the expeditions—helped them to make one last stand
+for home and children. Then came the skurry to
+the beach. Behind are the ruthless, bloodthirsty
+“braves,” in front the mighty ocean. Picture the
+tiny skin-boats, manned by the few survivors, darting
+out through Atlantic surf, with probably wife
+and child hurriedly lashed on the back, as they do
+sometimes at the present day. Think of the tragedies
+enacted, as perhaps some obstacle prevented the
+kayaks getting away—some refractory child, some
+accident to the frail craft at the last moment. With
+fiendish yells the Indians are hurrying over the
+beach towards them, more horrible from their weird
+war-paint. History only says the settlement was
+exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>Starvation also has lessened their numbers. Near
+Sir Leopold McClintock’s winter quarters—where the
+darkness lasted for three months—were camped some
+Eskimo. These people had neither fires nor lights.
+Living in snow huts, into which they crawled on
+their bellies through long snow tunnels, they lay
+huddled on one another for the sake of the warmth.
+Their clothes were of duck-skins and other feathers
+inside, and seal-skin outside. No wood existed anywhere
+near. Their food consisted of raw seal meat,
+buried deep outside. Whenever hungry, they would
+crawl out, eat about four pounds of raw meat, and
+crawl back and sleep again as long as possible—almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>
+hibernating like the black bear. What would
+happen when the polar bear got at their meat supplies,
+as he was only too likely to do?</p>
+
+<p>Only this year (1894) the crew of the whaler <em>Balaena</em>
+brought to Dundee the horrible details of what might
+well be expected. The <em>Balaena’s</em> crew discovered on
+the shore, in a place far removed from all animal life,
+the dead bodies of three Eskimos, and a number of
+bleached human bones. These three—two men and one
+woman—were evidently the last survivors of a larger
+party. Near to the bodies three human heads were
+noticed—in each case the throat had been cut and
+savagely hacked with a knife, while the brains had
+been extracted through a hole in the skull. A
+smashed rifle and a bow and arrows were lying near,
+and all the evidences of a severe struggle between
+the last two male survivors. A blood-stained knife
+was taken from the woman’s hand. It is probable
+the party had been waiting here (Elwin Bay) for
+the arrival of the whalers in 1893. Alas! ice had
+prevented their coming, and at last, among the
+patiently-expectant little people, an awful tragedy
+had been enacted.</p>
+
+<p>Less dramatic incidents also occur in Eskimo life.
+Thus, in one case recently, an old tyrant had appropriated
+the fine new kayak of a poorer man; and soon
+after this poor fellow was drowned while shooting
+deer out of his old canoe, of which the skin covering
+was rotten. His son, a young fellow under twenty,
+remained quiet a long time. One day, however, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>
+was taken out hunting by the old man. Whilst
+crossing a wide river on the ice, the son dropped
+behind a step and blew the other’s brains out.</p>
+
+<p>On one or two occasions they have combined to
+attack the Moravian Brethren. Thus in Hebron, on
+one occasion, they shut the missionaries up in their
+house, not allowing them even to go and get water,
+demanding that all the goods in the store should be
+handed over to them. No resistance was made, except
+that the store was kept locked. At the end
+of three days, which the Brethren had spent in
+prayer, conviction seized the Eskimo, and they came
+and said they were very sorry.</p>
+
+<p>No stretch of imagination could call them an
+emotional people; some are almost fatalists, and all
+are easily satisfied and careless of the morrow. One
+day an Eskimo guide accompanied me out fishing. It
+so happened that rain fell in great quantities, and as
+he had left his skin “kossack,” or jumper, at home, he
+might reasonably have been expected to seek shelter
+under one of the many rocks while I fished. Not so.
+He remained seated all the time out in the rain as if
+he were a mushroom. Late at night, after he had
+gone home, he came off again in his “kayak” to the
+ship to see me. “My boy dead,” he said. “Why
+did you not tell me he was ill? You knew we had
+medicine.” “No good; must die,” he replied.</p>
+
+<p>I went next morning to see the funeral. The
+Moravians have taught them to bury beneath the
+surface. A hole had been dug in the sandy ground;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>
+the body was put in, and the grave filled up with
+sand. An hour later not a sign remained to mark
+the spot. It would never suggest itself to them to
+visit it.</p>
+
+<p>In 1790, Cartwright, falling in love with an Eskimo
+girl, asked her hand from her husband Eketcheak,
+who had another wife himself. The reply was, “She
+is no good to work. Have this one and her two
+children.” Cartwright declined, saying he preferred
+the younger. “Take them all then,” said the generous
+husband. Cartwright explained he did not wish
+to trespass too much on his kindness. “Oh, you
+can give them back at the end of the year if you
+don’t want to keep them.”</p>
+
+<p>While we were in Okkak, an elderly squaw came
+to be treated for shaking of the knees. It appeared
+that she had never before seen a steamboat, and had
+received a severe fright at the arrival of the <em>Princess
+May</em>; for she thought it was a man-of-war come to
+punish her son Rudolph, who some time previously
+had shot his wife, being tired of her. Since that incident
+Rudolph had become a Christian, but, as his
+crime was still unpunished, by Moravian rule he
+could not be admitted to their communion.</p>
+
+<p>Remorse seemed to have seized him, and his one
+desire now was that his crime might be expiated
+by receiving its punishment at the hand of man.
+Naturally his mother was anxious.</p>
+
+<p>This lack of emotion seems to prevent a due appreciation
+of the principle of self-sacrifice. Thus,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>
+one day, while a heavy storm was raging, some
+of those ashore noticed a party in great distress,
+endeavouring to reach the mainland in one of their
+smaller boats. A heavy surf was rolling in, and
+it would no doubt have been risky to go out. So
+the idea of a rescue seems never to have suggested
+itself. The people were drowned, and in telling the
+story themselves afterwards, they said, shrugging
+their shoulders, “Kujana,” meaning, “It must be,”
+or “I don’t care for it”—a solution which to them
+is perfectly satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Yet they do at times brave deeds. Once last winter
+Michael and Simeon (they never have two
+names) in crossing from an island in their kayaks,
+were overtaken by a kind of blizzard. Simeon became
+unconscious and capsized. Michael, though
+himself almost <em>in extremis</em>, and having only his
+tiny kayak to fight the storm in, managed to get
+his friend out of the boat—into which they are
+usually laced—to put him on the back of his own
+canoe, and to carry him safely to land. Needless to
+say no Albert medal rewarded his brave deed. Unfortunately,
+the art of using the kayak is rapidly
+becoming lost, largely because the foolish Eskimo
+part with the seal-skins, necessary to cover their
+boats, in exchange for cheap and useless European
+goods. At one time, with their skin kossack or coat,
+laced over the opening, and fast round their wrists
+and face, they could upset with impunity, for with
+a couple of deft strokes with their paddles they were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>
+soon right way up again. Indeed, in heavy seas
+they would purposely upset, and so get the force
+of the broken water on the bottom or side of their
+boat, righting themselves immediately the danger
+had passed. In sport one kayak would “leap-frog”
+over another; or turning over on one side the
+“kayak man” would right himself on the other in
+their merry dexterity. Alas! that so marvellous
+an adaptation to the necessities of their lives should
+ever be relegated to a forgotten past. Broken
+water does them no more harm than it would to a
+swimming seagull, so exquisite is their buoyancy.</p>
+
+<p>Generosity and vanity form a queer combination
+in many of them. On one occasion, a family, which
+had long been struggling for the mere necessaries
+of daily life, were fortunate enough to catch in their
+large stone trap a black fox. With tears of joy
+the father took the skin to the store. God had
+heard his prayers. He was credited with £9 worth
+of goods. When he got home, however, the well-filled
+cupboard so filled his heart with vanity that
+he issued an invitation to all his acquaintances “to
+come and eat and stay with him.” In two days
+the supplies ran out, and already again the wolf of
+hunger besieged his doors.</p>
+
+<p>In another case a Newfoundland planter had left
+an Eskimo in charge of his stores during the winter,
+giving him for himself a more than generous winter’s
+diet. Soon his friends, with their chronic state of
+hunger, came to pay him a visit. Without a thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>
+as to consequences, the visit was prolonged indefinitely,
+and soon the whole of them were without
+provisions. The usual course to adopt next is to
+drive on and visit the nearest settlement, till all
+alike are “commercial travellers” in the same line
+of business. No wonder there is an Eskimo saying,
+“Do not live near the komatik (or sleigh) track.”</p>
+
+<p>Loyalty is said to be a marked feature in the
+Eskimo. They fully believed at Hopedale that Her
+Majesty the Queen sits on a rock on the look-out—as
+they do—in her anxiety for the arrival of the
+mission ship <em>Harmony</em>. We were charged with many
+personal messages by them to the Queen, expressing
+their deep sense of gratitude for sending the <em>Albert</em>
+out to them.</p>
+
+<p>When they heard the English were at war in
+Egypt, they organized an impromptu regiment, with
+a captain in a discarded policeman’s coat and one
+odd epaulet, with which they proposed to the missionaries
+they should proceed to the seat of war.
+Indeed, they took no denial, and continued to drill
+till the opening of the sea turned their attention
+once more to cod-fishing.</p>
+
+<p>I must now close my few remarks about this
+interesting people. Some of their habits, which to
+us are more repellant, I have purposely passed over—such
+as their predilection for their meat to be
+“mikkiak,” or partly rotten, and their uncleanliness.
+What we saw of the Eskimo we liked: their gratitude
+for kindnesses done; their fortitude under the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>
+knife, or in pain; their merriment and good-nature
+often under circumstances most depressing. When
+talking to a dying Eskimo of forty-five, who for a
+fortnight had lain in terrible agony with his hands
+blown off, I asked the poor fellow if the pain was
+unbearable. He answered simply, “It is nothing
+to what my Saviour bore in the Garden for me.”
+His last words were singing Zinzendorf’s beautiful
+hymn:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse">“Jesus, day by day,</div>
+    <div class="verse">Guide us on our way.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It continues:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent4">“Should the path us grieve,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Thee we’ll never leave;</div>
+    <div class="verse">Lord, in days of greatest sadness,</div>
+    <div class="verse">Let us bear our cross with gladness;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Trials mark the road</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Leading home to God.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent4">All our steps attend,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Guide us to the end;</div>
+    <div class="verse">Should the way be rough and dreary,</div>
+    <div class="verse">With Thy strength support the weary;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">When our race is o’er,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent4">Open, Lord, Thy door.”</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p>
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>THE DEEDS OF HEROES</em></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> 18,000 people cluster around the shores of
+Trinity Bay, their scattered villages and fishing
+hamlets nestling on its creeks and coves. It was in
+February. The Ice King had laid his iron hand
+even on the giant ocean, and the floe ice of the
+frozen sea stretched far beyond the eye’s horizon.
+Yet these boldest among England’s sea-loving sons
+were adding to their scanty stock of this world’s
+goods by venturing far out among the treacherous
+ice in pursuit of seals.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the 27th broke bright and beautiful,
+enhanced by a clear space of deep blue water
+between the shore and the inner edge of the ice.
+The eager hunters were early astir, and snatching
+a hasty breakfast, were soon off in their little boats,
+being but lightly clad, to give their limbs freer
+play in the various vicissitudes of their calling.</p>
+
+<p>From Trinity, Green Bay, Ireland’s Eye, boat
+glided out after boat, as the crack of the guns of
+those first afloat told of a prospect of success, until
+over 220 men were out. “’Tis a strange and awful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>
+thing to think, how often mortality stands on the
+brink of its grave without any misgiving.”</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a dark cloud appeared in the north-east,
+with incredible rapidity masses piled themselves
+together, and then in a moment, from the heart of
+the black battalions, the tempest leaped in fury,
+struck the now darkened waters, and converted the
+bay into a seething, hissing cauldron. The temperature
+fell forty degrees, and the fierce cold, with the
+piercing wind, seemed to freeze the very blood in
+the veins. Gust followed gust, each more furious
+than the last, driving the angry sea in foam-capped
+mountains on to the doomed fleet of boats. Now
+began a desperate struggle for life, enough to appal
+the stoutest hearts. Two alternatives only were
+possible—first to face the teeth of the gale and row
+for their homes on the north shore; or, secondly, run
+before it, and endeavour to clamber over the ice to
+the southern side of the bay. Six boats tried the
+former. The spray, freezing as it fell, drenched the
+men to their skin, covering both boats and men with
+casings of solid ice. Slowly and painfully, in terrible
+danger each moment of being swamped, they
+lessened the distance between themselves and the
+shore. Suddenly a cry of despair arose from one of
+the boats—the oars had snapped, and the boat was
+drifting to certain destruction. Without a thought
+of the peril of the delay, and from the increased
+burden they would have to carry, the nearest boat
+at once went to their aid, and in that terrible sea<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>
+took the perishing men on board. One of the poor
+fellows, however, was soon dead from cold and
+exhaustion. Ice began to form in thick masses on
+the bow and sides of the deeply-laden boat, and as
+each wave struck her she rose more and more
+heavily, until all saw the immediate need of lightening
+the boat. With sad, mute faces the men looked
+at each other. The dead man lay at the bottom of
+the boat, his white face and unclosed eyes turned
+towards the sky. “Come, boys,” said the oldest man,
+“it can’t be helped; Isaac must go overboard or we
+shall all be drowned.” Rapidly they raised the body,
+now draped in its icy shroud. “In the name of God
+we commit this body to the deep in sure, and certain
+hope of resurrection. Amen.” A dull plash and the
+reverent funeral service was over. The boat seemed
+now to float more buoyantly; but after another
+hour’s struggle for life, the brother of him whose
+remains had already been given to the sea, breathed
+his last. No doubt the horror of the scene had
+hastened his end. The sad ceremonial had to be
+repeated at once, for the ice was fast gaining and
+sinking the boat.</p>
+
+<p>Benumbed and exhausted in this death battle, all
+hope was nearly over when from the foremost boat
+a cry was raised which put fresh courage in their
+hearts—Land, ho! It was the well known “Horse
+Chop” rocks. Another desperate effort, and at last
+their keels touched the strand. But, alas! for the
+poor fellows even then. Some, unable even to leave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>
+the boats till helped by their companions, staggered
+feebly ashore, and tried to crawl up the steep gulch
+from their landing place; but strength failed them,
+and four more died after landing. It was a sad
+ending to so brave a fight.</p>
+
+<p>Deeds worthy of the highest praise were enacted in
+that gulch that day, the stronger helping the weaker,
+and endeavouring to restore and encourage those
+who were abandoning themselves to death. One
+tells how “I saw Robert Bannister manage to crawl
+partly up the cliff on his hands and knees. At last
+he just stopped, said, ‘God bless us,’ and died where
+he was. His son was lying dead near him.” The
+nearest house was two miles away, but three men
+had now spied them. Hastily making a fire of brushwood,
+they helped the still living up the cliff, and
+putting some of their own garments on them, nursed
+some back to life—but here two more poor fellows
+perished, while their rescuers carried or helped
+them over that long two miles. Not one but
+suffered terribly from frost-bite, especially one poor
+fellow who had given his mittens to a lad without
+any.</p>
+
+<p>There were still twenty-four boats missing. What
+of them? Ice-covered, frost-bitten, and exhausted,
+some had reached harbours in the great bay, situated
+not so directly in the teeth of the storm; but of
+those who made for Bonaventure, Deer Harbour,
+Thoroughfare, and Ireland’s Eye, only one had died
+in the boat. But now deeds of even greater heroism<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>
+were called for and performed. The men from
+Ireland’s Eye found that far out in the storm were
+men from English Harbour and Salmon Cove, who
+could not possibly reach home, and who might be
+sheltering on some off-lying uninhabited island, certain
+to perish during the night unless help were forthcoming.
+Food was partaken of, a brief rest snatched,
+God’s protecting care besought, and once more these
+heroes of the sea went out silently into that raging
+storm, from which they had but just escaped with
+their lives. “Inasmuch as ye did unto the least of
+these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me.” Two boats
+were manned, and after fruitless search one returned
+safely, but empty handed, to the shelter of the harbour.
+The other, through the darkness of the falling
+night, saw at length a small light on a desolate spot
+near Thoroughfare. Fierce joy burnt in those noble
+hearts, as they strained every sinew to drive their
+stubborn craft through the now almost forgotten
+dangers. Alas, a sorrowful sight awaited them.
+There in their boat on the beach, amidst the roar of
+the storm, and the thunder of the surf, lay two poor
+fellows silent in death—swathed in their winding
+sheet of ice, and fast frozen to their boat. By the
+fire were three fishermen, half dead themselves, trying
+to rekindle the spark of life in two of their fast
+dying comrades. All were taken back by the rescue
+party, and the living nursed back to life at the nearest
+cottage. It was enough to move the most cynical
+to tears—wives and mothers wildly wringing their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>
+hands in agony of heart; and those strong men,
+with nerves of iron, wept like children.</p>
+
+<p>The storm raged all Saturday night, and from many
+a little home the men were still missing. During
+the long hours hope and despair alternated in many
+anxious hearts, for all knew they had drifted across
+the bay, and none knew what their fate might be.</p>
+
+<p>At noon on Sunday a woman, at Heart’s Content,
+on the southern side, happened to notice, far out in
+the bay, a small boat drifting helplessly about. But
+for this all must have perished. Rescue parties were
+at once formed, and soon five boats, with seventeen
+men, some in the last stage of exhaustion from the
+exposure of that awful night, were brought ashore.
+These men had spent the night on the ice; they had
+broken up and burnt two boats, which, with the fat
+of two seals they had killed, had kept off the worst
+of the cold, while some of the fresh meat, roasted in
+the flames, had helped to assuage the pangs of hunger
+and maintain the bodily heat. All these were more
+or less severely frost-bitten, but, with the loss of
+fingers, toes, or heels, all recovered. Later in the
+day the rest of the boats were seen, and twenty-seven
+more men rescued. One of these men, Patrick
+Hanlan, thus described his experiences:—</p>
+
+<p>“The spray was continually going over us, and
+freezing, and we soon saw it was impossible to reach
+land on the north side of the bay without running
+the risk of freezing to death. After a time we gave
+her a little sheet, and ran her for a pan of ice. Got<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>
+out on the pan and made a fire to get something to
+eat and drink. Just as we were doing this, a sea
+broke over the pan, and washed everything off except
+ourselves. We had to jump in our boat and run her
+before the gale until about four in the afternoon.
+Just before dusk we caught up four other boats with
+twelve men in them. We all hauled up our boats
+on a large pan of ice, turned up the largest boats to
+make a shelter from the wind, and made a fire. I
+had two seals in my boat, and we pelted (<em>i.e.</em> skinned)
+them to burn the fat, breaking up one of the smaller
+boats, also, to use as fuel. We were on the ice drifting
+up the bay all night. It was bitterly cold, in
+spite of the big fire, and we had to keep dancing and
+jumping to keep up our spirits, and to keep from
+freezing. At dawn we were about five miles from
+Heart’s Delight. We hauled our boats over some
+ice, and then rowed for land, which we reached at
+nine o’clock. The people treated us with wonderful
+kindness, doing all in their power to relieve us.
+Under Providence they saved our lives, and we shall
+never forget their kindness.”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> For the above account of this Trinity Bay disaster I
+am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Moses Harvey, LL.D., F.R.C.S., one of
+the truest friends the fishermen ever had.—W. T. G.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to show the stuff these men
+are made of, and there is not space here to multiply
+stories that point to the same traits of character, and
+that show the same self-sacrificing courage. Yet
+with such the history of these perilous fisheries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>
+abounds. With which statement of fact, gentle
+reader, I shall say adieu, thanking God if in any
+way I may still be of service to these toilers of the
+sea.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>WE APPEAL FOR CANADIAN SYMPATHY</em></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" id="i_216">
+<img src="images/i_216.jpg" alt="" width="322" height="500">
+<p class="caption center">A Missionary in Winter Dress.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> November, 1893, Dr. Bobardt and
+myself visited Canada, with the hope of getting help for our work,
+seeing that some Canadians would at least benefit by it. In Halifax,
+Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto we found friendly audiences. St. Paul’s
+Church (Episcopal), the Brunswick Street Methodist Church, and the
+Garison Chapel, all of Halifax, each paid for the support of one cot
+for a year, promising to endeavour to do so annually; while a small
+committee was organized in each place to keep alive an interest in
+the work, and to help by sending clothes and reading to St. Johns,
+Newfoundland, for us to carry to Labrador. Governor Daly,<span
+class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> General Montgomery Moore,
+and Bishop Courtney, of Nova Scotia, were good enough to assist us in
+Halifax; while everywhere the members of that admirable institution,
+“The Brotherhood of St. Andrew,” extended their generous friendship to
+us. In Montreal, Sir Donald Smith, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company,
+who himself had spent thirteen years in charge of one of the Company’s
+stations, presented a steamer to the Montreal Committee, to enable the
+work to be more efficiently carried out. Dr. Roddick, of Montreal, also
+presented the Mission with a sailing boat for Battle Harbour, called
+the <em>Urelia McKinnon</em>. His Excellency the Governor-General,
+Lord Aberdeen, was good enough to preside at the meeting at Ottawa,
+and express his sympathy with the work. Indeed, for real interest and
+sympathy in every philanthropic work, and it is grand to know in every
+distinctively missionary work also, Canada is fortunate in possessing
+in both Lord and Lady Aberdeen examples of a kind alas far too rare in
+these so-called Christian days. A meeting was also held in Winnipeg,
+whither we went on a holiday trip, and here the Lieut.-Governor, Sir
+John Schultze, presided, and, with Lady Schultze, expressed great
+interest in the work. Samuel Blake, Esq., Q.C., so well known in Canada
+for his broad-minded Christian sympathies, was our chairman at Toronto.
+Our days at Toronto possessed for me an interest never experienced
+before. We fell on a great Missionary Convention, and from Mr.
+Warzawiak, of New York,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>
+Dr. MacKay, of Formosa, Dr. Gordon, of Boston, Dr. Pierson, of
+Philadelphia, and many other remarkable men, we heard of such
+difficulties overcome, obstacles removed, and successes attained by the
+Gospel in other fields in the missionary world, that it made one desire
+to be at work in China, Africa, and North America all at once.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching England in March, while preparations
+were being made for 1894, I was enabled to visit
+the North Sea fleets. The English fishermen expressed
+a most lively interest in their brethren over
+the sea, and the warm-hearted admiral of the Red
+Cross fleet sent me a large flag, that they might be
+“represented in Labrador.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Curwen having gone to China for the London
+Missionary Society, and Dr. Bobardt desiring to remain
+at home a year, our staff, consisting of Dr.
+Willway, Dr. Bennett, and the two sisters, sailed
+direct for Labrador in the <em>Albert</em>, while a volunteer
+Christian worker, who came and acted as chief engineer
+(Mr. W. B. Wakefield), and myself, left for
+Montreal, fitting out and despatching the <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Princess
+May</em>, as we passed through St. Johns, Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>Albert</em> had a long passage out, and meeting
+the outside of the floe ice, had a tough three days
+working her way through; now charging into large
+pans, now laying against masses piled up higher
+than her masts. Captain Trezise reported her as
+at one time in great danger of being overwhelmed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>
+by masses falling on to her decks. She, however,
+got through safely, and her magnificent sea qualities
+and rapid movements were more than ever before
+apparent to those in charge of her.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_219">
+<img src="images/i_219.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="486">
+<p class="caption center">Eskimo Brass Band at Moravian Mission Station of Hopedale.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having landed Dr. Bennett and Sister Carwardine
+at Battle Hospital, she proceeded to Indian Harbour,
+where the hospital was rapidly placed in
+working order. Here the little wood building almost
+came to an inglorious and premature end
+by fire the first week of its existence; and we were
+indebted to the strenuous efforts of a number of
+fishermen for saving it from destruction, and to
+Commodore Curzon-Howe, of H.M.S. <em>Cleopatra</em>, for
+landing a body of blue jackets to repair the
+damage, enabling the work to proceed. The <em>Albert</em>
+then returned and lay in Battle Harbour, to await
+the arrival of our steamer, the <em>Sir Donald</em>. Meanwhile,
+we had visited many stations from Montreal
+along the Labrador coast on the north side
+the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Everywhere we had
+had plenty of work to do: seeing sick people,
+operating where necessary, holding services, and
+distributing literature. We <em>everywhere</em> found people
+deeply grateful for our visit, and glad to gather
+to hear the Gospel. Many spoke eagerly of the
+hopes raised that a third hospital would be erected
+in the Labrador or lower province of Quebec,
+to which the sick could be carried, and were
+anxious to forward a petition to Ottawa to that
+effect. We were everywhere entreated not to allow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>
+this to be our last visit. At La Romaine, a station
+of the Hudson Bay Company, we had a
+severe operation on a young Montaignais Indian
+hunter—otherwise doomed to die—and when we left
+three days later he was lying in his tent, on a
+clean bed of spruce boughs, on the high-road to
+recovery. At the last places we visited, we took
+patients aboard for Battle Hospital—one poor lad
+with a horrible affection of the hip, a girl with a
+useless wrist and arm, a child with hip-joint disease,
+and a sick woman for operation. All of these eventually
+returned home benefited or cured.</p>
+
+<p>Just before reaching Battle Harbour, with all our
+flags flying, our brass polished, and our spirits wild
+with expectancy of seeing our colleagues again, we
+suddenly struck a submerged rock, and for a few
+minutes lay in danger of rolling over and sinking
+in deep water. All hands behaved exceedingly
+well. Our boats were lowered, signals put up for
+two schooners which happened to be passing, to
+“stand by,” while kedge anchors were run out, in
+the endeavour to save the ship by warping her off the
+rocks. After a time, assisted by a heavy tide and the
+big ground swell, she came off and swung to her anchors
+in the deep water. Alas, for us, she had almost
+better have remained a complete wreck, for her keel
+and stem were broken, her rudder twisted, her propeller
+gone, her engines broken, and her side bulged
+in. Fortunately, we were able to travel over land to
+Battle Harbour; and Mr. Baine Grieve’s agent sent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>
+thence his bait launch and towed the <em>Sir Donald</em>
+into harbour. Here we found the <em>Albert</em>, very
+anxious about our long delayed arrival, but now
+overjoyed to see us in any plight. As nothing could
+be done to repair the steamer in Labrador, Captain
+Trezise undertook the exceedingly risky attempt to
+tow the <em>Sir Donald</em> to St. Johns, and this, after
+many exciting incidents and many close shaves of
+losing her, he successfully accomplished. There she
+now lies, undergoing repairs for another year’s
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, I left with the <em>Urelia McKinnon</em> for
+Indian Harbour Hospital, and thence visited the
+Hudson Bay station at Rigolette, and many other
+places between Indian Harbour and Battle.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bennett was anxious to leave early for England,
+as he was appointed by the London Missionary
+Society to Tien-Tsin Missionary Hospital in China;
+and so, till winter drove the Newfoundland people off
+the coast, Battle Hospital came under my charge.
+On November 1st the sisters and myself left for
+Newfoundland, Dr. Willway remaining to hold the
+fort alone till we could return in 1895. His arrangements
+were to visit, if possible, as far as Blanc
+Sablon, and then returning to his hospital to meet
+our good friend Mr. Wilson, of Rigolette, at Cartwright,
+to travel with him north to Hopedale and
+Davis Inlet, and then to await at Battle Hospital
+our return.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, God willing, much good will be done, many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>
+sick and suffering ones relieved, many cheered and
+assisted in their struggle for existence, and, above
+all, the Gospel proclaimed in many homes where,
+but for the “Labrador Mission,” its sound would
+never reach during the long and weary winter
+months.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Dr. Willway left for the North on January 9th, the sea being then
+firmly frozen over.</p>
+
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span></p>
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDICES">APPENDICES</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">APPENDIX A</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>SOME MEDICAL STATISTICS.</em></p>
+
+
+<p>There were treated from the <em>Albert</em> in 1892 nine
+hundred patients, of which one-third might be
+called serious cases. An epidemic of influenza visited
+the coast, and this led to many cases of lung affections.
+Affections of the eyes were also common, while minor
+surgical cases were in great abundance. Seven
+operations were performed under anæsthetics.</p>
+
+<p>In 1893 there were treated:—</p>
+
+<p>In Labrador, the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the
+French shore of Newfoundland there were treated by—</p>
+
+<!-- <p>
+<span style="margin-left: 22.8em;">In-Patients. &nbsp; Out-Patients.</span><br>
+Dr. Bobardt at Battle Hospital<span style="margin-left: 12.0em;"> 33 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 647</span><br>
+Dr. Curwen on the Hospital ship <em>Albert</em><span style="margin-left: 9em;"> 3 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;1,052</span><br>
+Dr. Grenfell on the steam launch <em>Princess May</em><span style="margin-left: 6.0em;"> 1 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;794</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">— &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ———</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">That is a total of &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 37 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2,493</span>
+</p> -->
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">In-Patients.</td>
+<td class="tdc">Out-Patients.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Bobardt at Battle Hospital</td>
+<td class="tdr">33</td>
+<td class="tdr">647</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Curwen on the Hospital ship <em>Albert</em></td>
+<td class="tdr">3</td>
+<td class="tdr">1,052</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Grenfell on the steam launch <em>Princess May</em></td>
+<td class="tdr">1</td>
+<td class="tdr">794</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">That is a total of</td>
+<td class="tdr" style="text-decoration: overline">37</td>
+<td class="tdr" style="text-decoration: overline">2,493</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>These cases, for the council’s better information and
+that of the public, I analysed as follows. [Our case
+books are preserved in London for reference.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p class="center"><strong><em>Medical Cases.</em></strong></p>
+
+<table class="toc">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" colspan="2"><strong>Diseases of</strong>—</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Digestive system</td>
+    <td class="right">633</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Respiratory and circulatory system</td>
+    <td class="right">194</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Nervous system</td>
+    <td class="right">60</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Excretory system</td>
+    <td class="right">40</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Women</td>
+    <td class="right">64</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="left" colspan="2"><strong>Diseases of special organs</strong>—</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Eye (including 34 cases of night blindness)</td>
+    <td class="right">211</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Ear</td>
+    <td class="right">40</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Nose and throat</td>
+    <td class="right">93</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Skin</td>
+    <td class="right">105</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"><strong>Minor cases</strong>—Headaches, colds, strains</td>
+    <td class="right">167</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"><strong>Cases of rheumatism</strong></td>
+    <td class="right">64</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="2"><strong><em>Surgical Cases.</em></strong></td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Affections of the upper limbs</td>
+    <td class="right">306</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Affections of the lower limbs</td>
+    <td class="right">94</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">General surgical cases—Glands, bones, special<br>
+      agues, rickets, tumour, fistula, etc.</td>
+    <td class="right">188</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"><strong>Sundry minor cases</strong></td>
+    <td class="right">210</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+        <td class="right">——</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"><strong>Total</strong></td>
+     <td class="right">2,493</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<table class="toc">
+<tr>
+    <td class="cht">Operations performed under chloroform</td>
+    <td class="right">17</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Major operations without chloroform</td>
+    <td class="right">11</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Minor surgical operations, including teeth</td>
+    <td class="right">269</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p>There were in Battle Harbour Hospital the following
+named cots or beds: viz., Exeter, Brighton, Redhill,
+Hutchinson, Macpherson; also the John Fountain
+Elvin and John Charles Harris memorial cots.</p>
+
+<p>In the male ward were first the “Brighton cot.”
+This was occupied by a poor Newfoundland fisherman
+whom I brought 80 miles in the <em>Princess
+May</em>. He had consumption, and died after about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>
+two months in hospital. His body alone reached
+his relatives in Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>The second bed was the “Harris Cot.” There
+were three patients in this bed this season. The
+first was suffering with pleurisy; the second had
+to have his middle finger amputated, after a deep
+abscess of the hand; the third also had a severely
+poisoned hand.</p>
+
+<p>The third, the “Redhill Cot,” was occupied by a
+fisherman with paralysis of the right arm and leg,
+and then by a poor fellow with consumption.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth, the “Hutchinson Cot,” was occupied
+by, first, a man with a severely crushed hand; then
+by a poor fellow from far north, sent back by the
+<em>Albert</em> (he was suffering from ulcer of the stomach);
+and, thirdly, by a French Canadian who was brought
+in a sealing steamer from Canadian Labrador, with
+a deep abscess of the back.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth, the “Exeter Cot,” was occupied, first, by
+a fisherman with rheumatic fever and heart disease;
+second, by a man with excessive deep inflammation
+of the arm and forearm; third, by a man with
+abscess in the palm of his hand; fourth, by a young
+American with an affection resulting from consumption
+in the system; fifth, by a very similar case
+with a Newfoundlander.</p>
+
+<p>The sixth, the “Macpherson Cot,” was in the
+female ward. First of all it was occupied by a
+young girl who had to undergo a serious operation;
+then by a woman who had come fifty miles down<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>
+the Straits of Belle Isle with an internal disease;
+then by a poor girl brought south in the mail
+steamer from the cabin of one of the small fishing
+vessels. She died in hospital. The poor thing was
+engaged to be married this summer. Had she been
+able to come earlier for proper assistance there can
+be no doubt her life would have been saved. The
+fourth patient in this bed was a girl of eighteen.
+She had been suffering with an internal abscess for
+nearly three years when I saw her first in Sandwich
+Bay in the <em>Princess May</em>. After the operation we
+sent her by the mail to Battle Hospital. Here she
+remained some weeks, and on returning south in the
+<em>Princess May</em>, and again visiting Sandwich Bay, I
+found the girl returned, a new creature altogether.
+“I should like to have stayed always,” she told me.</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. T. G.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><em>The following are a few figures from my report
+rendered to the St. Johns Auxiliary Branch of the
+M.D.S.F.</em>:—</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1894, owing to the loss of the <span class="allsmcap">S.S.</span> <em>Sir Donald</em>,
+and the fact of the <em>Princess May</em> being unable to
+reach the coast, the work of the mission was much
+curtailed. Yet out of 1,306 patients treated a much
+larger proportion were serious cases, and more
+patients availed themselves of the hospitals. This
+number will no doubt increase.</p>
+
+<p>There were treated this year by—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span></p>
+
+<!-- <p>
+<span style="margin-left: 22.8em;">In-Patients. &nbsp; Out-Patients.</span><br>
+Dr. Bennett at Battle Hospital<span style="margin-left: 12.0em;"> 27 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 444</span><br>
+Dr. Willway at Indian Harbour<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;"> 20 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;580</span><br>
+Dr. Grenfell on the <em>Sir Donald</em> and <em>Urelia McKinnon</em><span style="margin-left: 3em;"> 4 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;231</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 24em;">— &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;————</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 19em;">Total&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 51 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1,255</span>
+</p> -->
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">In-Patients.</td>
+<td class="tdc">Out-Patients.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Bennett at Battle Hospital</td>
+<td class="tdr">27</td>
+<td class="tdr">444</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Willway at Indian Harbour</td>
+<td class="tdr">20</td>
+<td class="tdr">580</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dr. Grenfell on the <em>Sir Donald</em> and <em>Urelia McKinnon</em></td>
+<td class="tdr">4</td>
+<td class="tdr">231</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">Total</td>
+<td class="tdr" style="text-decoration: overline">51</td>
+<td class="tdr" style="text-decoration: overline">1,255</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>These were—</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>Medical Cases.</em></p>
+
+<table class="toc">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" colspan="2"><strong>Diseases of</strong>—</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Digestive system</td>
+    <td class="right">226</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Respiratory system</td>
+    <td class="right">130</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Nervous system</td>
+    <td class="right">55</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Excretory system</td>
+    <td class="right">45</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Women</td>
+    <td class="right">33</td>
+</tr><tr>
+ <td class="left" colspan="2"><strong> Minor cases—</strong></td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Colds, headaches</td>
+    <td class="right">73</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+
+<p class="center"><strong><em>Surgical Cases.</em></strong></p>
+
+<table class="toc">
+<tr>
+<td class="left" colspan="2"><strong>Diseases of</strong>—</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"> Affections of the upper limbs</td>
+    <td class="right">73</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Affections of the lower limbs</td>
+    <td class="right">64</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">General surgical affections, including<br>
+      glands, bones, fistula, etc.</td>
+    <td class="right">140</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Minor surgery cases</td>
+    <td class="right">114</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht" colspan="2"><strong> Diseases of special organs—</strong></td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Eye</td>
+    <td class="right">90</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Ear</td>
+    <td class="right">27</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Nose and throat</td>
+    <td class="right">48</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Skin</td>
+    <td class="right">74</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Affection</td>
+    <td class="right">64</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Operations performed under anæsthetics</td>
+    <td class="right">25</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">Minor operations, including teeth</td>
+    <td class="right">119</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht">In-patients</td>
+    <td class="right">51</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+        <td class="right">————</td>
+</tr><tr>
+    <td class="cht"> <strong>Grand total</strong></td>
+     <td class="right">1,306</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+
+<p class="center">APPENDIX B</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>SPIRITUAL AGENCIES IN LABRADOR</em>,</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Since July, 1892, at which time we arrived
+on the coast.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>There is a Wesleyan missionary fifty miles west
+of Battle, at Red Bay. To visit all round his
+circuit and return must involve 250 to 300 miles’
+travelling. It must be remembered all this visiting
+is done in a small open boat in summer, at great risk
+in so dangerous a place as the Straits of Belle Isle;
+and in winter over the ice with a komatik and team
+of dogs. The Rev. J. Sidey was there three years,
+and is now replaced by Rev. J. Antle.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> These Wesleyan missionaries are supported by the Methodist Church
+of Canada.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>At Battle Harbour, as is well known to our readers,
+there is a wooden church, but it has been in charge
+of a young teacher and lay reader since we have
+been on the coast.</p>
+
+<p>At Cartwright, thirty miles up Sandwich Bay, is
+another wooden church and schoolroom combined.
+Here also is a lay reader and schoolmaster. This
+would be about 150 miles up the coast from Battle
+Harbour. The sphere of work does not, I think,
+extend at all outside Sandwich Bay.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span></p>
+
+<p>Fifty miles above Indian Harbour, up Hamilton
+Inlet, is a young Wesleyan minister. He has a small
+school and chapel on the south side of the inlet. We
+had the pleasure of taking him in the <em>Princess May</em>
+to his new sphere of work. His name is the Rev. G.
+Hollett, and his sphere of work is Hamilton Inlet, I
+think as far in as the North West river, that is eighty
+miles further, or 130 from Indian Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>From Indian Harbour to Hopedale the settlers
+number from 260 to 300, and are very poor and
+very scattered. The distance by sea is 150 miles,
+and again consists of a series of long bays and
+off-lying islands. There is no missionary or schoolmaster
+anywhere along this part of the coast,
+though once in the winter one of the Moravians
+travels over the ice as far south as Cape Harrison
+with his komatik and dogs, often at great peril to his
+life. Northward of Cape Harrison are only a few
+scattered European settlers, mixed among not less
+than 2,000 Eskimos. These are mostly members of
+the Moravian Church. The Moravian stations are
+from 50 to 100 miles apart.</p>
+
+<p>To meet the spiritual needs of all these people,
+scattered as they are, and of the 25,000 who visit
+the coast in summer—some 10,000 living on their
+vessels all the year—we only heard of one clergyman
+of the Church of England and one Wesleyan minister,
+with one Roman Catholic priest, visiting during
+part of the summer. This year, 1893, we did not
+hear of any peripatetic Wesleyan minister, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>
+only clergyman was rather in pursuit of health; but
+we met in the Straits of Belle Isle Bishop MacDonnel
+and the Rev. Father Lynch, of the Roman Catholic
+Church. I must mention also that the Bible Society
+send a colporteur every year to sell Bibles and testaments
+on the coast, though we did not fall in with
+him this year, nor do I know how much of the coast
+he travels over. Last year a tiny schooner, manned
+by three Salvation Army captains, also visited the
+coast, partly fishing and partly preaching the gospel.
+Among the fishermen themselves we met many earnest
+and pious Christians, and as on the North Sea,
+so on this bleak coast we have felt God’s presence
+quite as real and as near in the meetings on board or
+in the huts as we have in great buildings and comfortable
+pews in the old country.</p>
+
+<p>Among past workers in Labrador I hear of the
+Rev. J. G. Curling, Rev. Mr. Hutchinson, and Rev.
+Mr. Quintain. The last two spent many years in
+Labrador, while the Rev. J. Bull spent three years
+at Battle Harbour. The Right Rev. Llewellyn Jones,
+Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, has also visited
+the coast, as did Bishop Field, his predecessor. The
+Rev. Father Lemoine, labouring among the Montaignais
+Indians of the interior, also sometimes comes
+out on the coast during the summer.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Bishop Jones sent three visiting clergymen to Labrador
+this summer 1894.</p>
+
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+
+<p class="center">APPENDIX C</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>A FEW TESTIMONIES TO THE WORK FROM
+THOSE WHO KNOW LABRADOR</em></p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><em>From the</em> <span class="smcap">Rev. F. S. Hollett</span>, <em>Missionary of the<br>
+Canadian Methodist Church at Rigolette</em>:—</p>
+
+<p class="right">Hamilton Inlet,</p>
+<p class="right">Labrador.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">Dear Dr. Grenfell,—</p>
+
+<p> ... Any way that we can help you, we
+will be glad to do it. As you know I can sympathise
+with you in the difficulties you meet with.
+D.V., we hope to have a visit from you next year.
+May God bless you in your noble work, and you
+will always remember,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">I am</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Your sincere brother in Christ,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;"><span class="smcap">Frank S. Hollett</span>.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p><em>From</em> <span class="smcap">Dr. Robert Murray</span>, <cite>Editor of the “Presbyterian
+Witness”</cite>:—</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Halifax</span>,<br>
+<em>December, 1894</em>.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">Dear Dr. Grenfell,—</p>
+
+<p> ... From our Presbyterian teacher from
+Canadian Labrador we had most favourable reports
+of your work. I examined him personally on his
+return, as to what he had seen and heard.</p>
+
+<p>While he had not seen the hospitals and the doctors,
+he had heard most appreciative reports from
+fishermen ...</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Yours very truly,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Robert Murray.</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p><em>October 27, 1892.</em> A representative meeting of the
+colony of Newfoundland was held at Government
+House, St. Johns. There were present, amongst
+others, His Excellency the Governor, Sir Frederick
+Carter (Judge of Supreme Court), Sir William
+Whiteway (Premier), Major-General Dowell, R.A.,
+Sir Robert Thorburn (late Premier), Hon. E. D.
+Shea, Hon. Robert Bond (Colonial Secretary), Hon.
+A. Goodridge (late Premier), Hon. A. W. Harvey,
+Hon. M. Munroe, and Messrs. W. Grieve, P. Tessier,
+E. Duder, W. Job, E. Outerbridge, representing the
+merchant firms, Captains the Hon. S. Blandford,
+W. Bartlett, N. Fitzgerald, J. Watson, representing
+the Labrador planters, and Messrs. Ch. Emerson, J.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>
+Withers,—Cohen, etc. After a discussion, in which
+several present took part, it was proposed by Hon.
+W. A. Harvey, seconded by Sir Wm. Whiteway,
+and when put by His Excellency the Governor
+unanimously resolved:—</p>
+
+<p><em>Resolved.</em>—“That this meeting, representing the
+principal merchants and traders carrying on the
+fisheries, especially on the coast of Labrador, and
+others interested in the welfare of this colony,
+desires to tender its warmest thanks to the directors
+of the Deep Sea Mission for their philanthropic
+generosity in sending their hospital ship <em>Albert</em> to
+visit the fishing settlements on the Labrador coast.</p>
+
+<p>“Much of our fishing industry is carried on in
+regions beyond the ordinary reach of medical aid
+or of charity, and it is with the deepest sense of
+gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount
+of medical and surgical work done, besides all the
+other relief and help so liberally distributed. This
+meeting also desires to express the hope that the
+directors of the Mission may see their way to continue
+the work thus begun, and should they do so
+they may be assured of the earnest support and co-operation
+of all classes of this community.”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Subsequent to this great meeting the following
+resolution was passed and forwarded to the Mission:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span></p>
+
+<p>“That this representative committee will undertake
+to provide two suitable buildings, which may
+be used as hospitals by the Mission to Deep Sea
+Fishermen, should the Council of the Mission signify
+their intention to continue their operations on the
+coast of Labrador, and the Committee will heartily
+co-operate in any other way that the Council of
+the Society may suggest.</p>
+
+<p>“That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded
+for the information of the society.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Signed) {<span class="smcap">T. O’Brien</span>, Governor, <em>Chairman</em>.</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">{<span class="smcap">M. Munroe</span>, <em>Secretary</em>.”</span></p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Montreal</span>, <em>December, 1893</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A. Bobardt</span>, Esq., M.B., R.N., writing, says:—</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Often in Labrador have I been urged on to further
+work by noting how much a Mission visit is appreciated,
+and how the people do enjoy a meeting; and
+it seems a thousand pities that they cannot be
+brought under regular spiritual influences.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The small portable organ I had was most useful,
+and wherever I went it was my <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Fidus Achates</i>,
+tending to infuse more life into my meetings. I
+found the people joined heartily in the hymns.
+Most of this visiting was done by boat, and it was
+in this work that one recognised fully the benefits
+of being able to handle an oar, and pull oneself
+wherever one wished to go.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>In the hospital I had thirty-three in-patients, and
+in the nursing of these I must pay tribute to Nurse
+Carwardine, who, by her unremitting zeal and attention,
+made many of these poor fishermen know
+for the first time what it was to be in a comfortable
+warm bed, and be skilfully attended to.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The comparison between them in hospital and in
+their own homes or smacks is too extreme to be
+drawn, and they were very grateful for what had
+been done for them.</p>
+
+<p>One case for example:—A gunshot wound of the
+hand came to hospital, and, though his hand was
+severely lacerated, he was able to return to his
+home with a useful limb, after being five weeks in.
+If this case had been left to itself, the young man
+must have either lost his arm, or had a stiff and
+useless hand; and the latter is in the way of a
+fisherman, who necessarily uses his hands so much
+in handling nets, lines, ropes, oars, etc.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Many at Battle and the surrounding coves are
+now thanking God for His goodness in inspiring
+friends in England and elsewhere to send clothing
+for them this fall; the look of delight when they
+received their bundles was a treat to witness. On
+Tuesday, October 31st, we left Battle Harbour,
+amidst the salutes from many “Brown Sallys”
+(guns). We carried with us the pleasantest recollections,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>
+and the hope that the work would grow
+and increase, bringing health, happiness, and much
+comfort to these Labradorites.</p>
+
+<p class="right">Sincerely yours,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Albert Bobardt</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p><em>From</em> Rev. <span class="smcap">Jno. Sidey</span>, <em>now three years Wesleyan
+Missionary at Red Bay</em>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><em>November, 1892.</em></p>
+
+<p>At the present time I believe there are but two
+ministers of the Gospel between Hopedale, the
+Moravian settlement, and Blanc Sablon, in the
+Straits of Belle Isle, a distance of over four hundred
+miles. Around the coast line numerous settlements
+are scattered along the route, and here in
+the best harbours are congregated during the summer
+season thousands of fishermen from Newfoundland,
+Canada, and the United States. They may, perhaps,
+the greater part of them, be attendants at the various
+churches when at home; but out here, removed from
+all religious influences, what wonder that they become
+dissipated and lost in the spiritual darkness
+that abounds on the coast. The Mission ship has
+visited these harbours, held services, and, if one may
+take as a criterion the work done here, and the interest
+aroused, a very favourable aspect is presented
+as to the spiritual portion of the work.</p>
+
+<p>But another and equally important phase of the
+work of the Mission on these shores calls for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>
+earnest sympathy and encouragement of all who
+have interest in this noble enterprise—<span class="smcap">The Medical
+Work</span>. A doctor is provided by the Government
+for this shore, during the summer months, but as
+he is stationed on board the mail-boat, which only
+calls just to land the mails and freight at comparatively
+a few of the above-mentioned ports, his
+services are practically <em>nil</em> to the greater portion
+of the community. Yet the record of sick and disabled
+fishermen is very large. Many have, year
+by year, to be sent home in the mail-boats at the
+expense of the Government, losing also a summer’s
+fishery, which in many cases might be avoided by
+a few days’ careful attention on board such a ship
+as the <em>Albert</em>. In such cases it is not only the men
+themselves that suffer, but their families are often
+starving throughout the long cold winters that
+follow. It may be a bold suggestion, but perhaps
+worthy of a little consideration (in view of the
+many harbours and extent of the coast), that were
+the Society to substitute a small steam vessel for
+the <em>Albert</em>, much more effective work could be accomplished,
+as then during the course of the summer,
+at least, three trips instead of one might be made
+along the whole shore; disabled fishermen could be
+accommodated on board for a trip and carried back
+again without impeding the work of the Mission; a
+representation might also be made to the Newfoundland
+Government—who, according to repute, are at
+great expense to keep up the useless custom of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>
+sending a doctor in the mail-boat, and carrying
+home sick men—to do away with their arrangement,
+and grant a subsidy towards the maintenance
+of a steam vessel, which could do the same work
+far more effectually and, I doubt not, at less expense
+to them.</p>
+
+<p>One word more in favour of the support of the
+Mission on this coast. The system of trade, which
+is largely a credit and barter system, deprives the
+men of the use of cash, even what they have really
+earned; and until settling-up day in the fall, few
+feel themselves at liberty to draw upon their little
+portion for the necessary comforts of their toil;
+hence the distribution of the woollens, cuffs, etc.,
+comes as a great boon to many a poor fisherman
+whose hands are cut by the lines, or whose clothing,
+scant at all times, has become deplorable by the
+wear and tear of a seafaring life. The writer has
+seen much of this, and well knows how such gifts
+would be valued.</p>
+
+<p>I trust that, as one who has lived and worked
+upon the coast, and who knows by actual experience
+something of the need of the Labrador shore, that
+I have said enough to evoke the sympathy of all
+who are willing to give one thought to the toilers
+of the deep, to bestow upon your noble Society the
+means for extending their work in this direction.
+We are far away, but it should be remembered
+that a large quantity of fish is exported to England
+from Newfoundland; besides, we claim kindred, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>
+are, for the most part, of the old British stock, and,
+above all, we are children of the same Heavenly
+Father who cares for all alike.</p>
+
+<p>May the Almighty bless the work already done,
+and touch the hearts of His children, so that the
+means may not be wanting when men are ready
+to sacrifice their all to undertake this noble task.</p>
+
+<p class="right">Yours faithfully,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Jno. C. Sidey</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Far away in that ice-bound, snow-clad country,
+there are men and women struggling with poverty,
+hunger, and disease. Could our kind friends at
+home, while sitting around their warm firesides
+with their dear children, supplied with every want
+and comfort, take a peep into the many miserable
+hovels, where men, women, and children are
+ill-fed, poorly-clad (in some cases nearly naked),
+suffering from sickness; and with no prospect of
+roughing the winter out, as all traders are gone,
+their only resource is to apply to the nearest fishing
+station, perhaps many miles away, for charity,
+which, I am thankful to say, is very rarely refused
+to them—could our kind friends but get a peep at
+them, I feel sure that they would be only too glad
+to do a little to relieve their wants. There are
+many residents scattered far and wide, some in
+fairly good circumstances, and there is, without
+doubt, an immense field of labour, both spiritually<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span>
+and medically, and I trust that many friends may
+be found to assist in this branch....</p>
+
+<p>Hoping that I have been successful in showing
+you that there is, indeed, a cry from Labrador:
+“Come over and help us.”</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Joseph F. Trezise</span> (late Master of <em>Albert</em>).</p>
+
+<p><em>December 8, 1892.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dear Dr. Grenfell</span>,—<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>The laudable work in which you are engaged has
+my warmest sympathy, and I trust that your endeavour
+in so good a cause will meet with the
+success it deserves.</p>
+
+<p>I visited the Labrador coast many years ago, as
+far north as Cape Harrison, and I then saw the
+many hardships endured by the hardy fishermen
+and their families. Yours is a most deserving
+charity.</p>
+
+<p>Trusting that you will have a large audience
+when you lecture in the city,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Believe me,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Yours very truly,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;"><span class="smcap">Robert Paton McLea</span>,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Montreal, Canada.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Moravian Missions, Secretary’s Office, 7, Furnival’s
+Inn, London, E.C.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><em>Nov. 3rd.</em></p>
+
+
+<p><em>To</em> <span class="smcap">F. H. Wood</span>, Esq., <em>Secretary Deep Sea Mission</em>.<br>
+
+<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—</p>
+
+<p>I am commissioned by the Committee of our
+Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel to convey
+to your Mission our thanks, and those of our
+missionaries at Hopedale, for the visit of the <em>Albert</em>.
+They write very gratefully of the medical aid, and
+especially of the spiritual fellowship and impulse
+afforded them, and they expressed the hope that the
+visit may be repeated. They say there is no lack
+of work, and the Divine blessing will crown such
+faithful endeavours to minister to the scattered
+schoonermen and others along the coast....
+We beg our Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel
+to express hearty thanks in our name, and that
+of the Eskimos....</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Yours faithfully,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">B. La Trobe</span>,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;"><em>Secretary</em>.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p class="center"><em>From</em> Rev. <span class="smcap">Moses Harvey</span>, LL.D., F.R.S., <em>St. Johns</em>,</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right"><em>July, 1893.</em></p>
+
+<p>The great need of hospital work on Labrador is
+seen when it is considered how many cases occur
+of blindness, deformities, or loss of certain faculties,
+affecting the bread-winners of families, most of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>
+which might have been prevented if treated in time,
+and thus much personal suffering spared, and also
+a great loss to the community. During the season
+the medical men were able to render such aid that
+several who had been compelled to give up work
+found themselves capable of resuming their duties.
+When sick persons are thus saved from losing their
+season’s work, or saved the time and expense involved
+in returning to Newfoundland for advice, in
+cases of minor importance; or when, as happened
+in several instances during the season, the lives or
+limbs were saved, or, in some hopeless cases, life
+was prolonged so as to allow them to reach home
+and end their days in the bosom of their families,
+the value of this hospital work becomes more apparent.</p>
+
+<p>To the sick of Labrador these hospitals will be
+an inestimable boon. Only those who have known
+what it is to toss on a bed of pain, perhaps unable
+even at night to find rest, their tongue parched with
+thirst, and fever raging in their system, can properly
+appreciate the meaning of the skilful help of
+the physician, the delicate attention of the trained
+nurse, the hushed house, the subdued voices and
+the gentle light of the half-darkened room. When
+this is contrasted with the sad sight so often witnessed
+on Labrador, of delicate women, and even
+children, undergoing sufferings, which are hard to
+bear even amid the comforts and gentle attentions
+of home, on the dreary coast of Labrador, far from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>
+every helping hand, or in the dark hold of some
+small fishing vessel, where the atmosphere is poisonous,
+and the noises to the sick distressing and
+almost maddening, it is then we realize the value
+of the noble humane work in the hospitals erected
+on storm-beaten Labrador for the relief of suffering
+humanity. Who would not aid in such a good
+work!</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Distribution of Clothing.</span></p>
+
+<p>The <em>Albert</em> brought from England a very large
+stock of clothing, both new and cast-off, the gift of
+kind charitable friends. This was distributed with
+the greatest care and discrimination, every precaution
+being used to guard against imposition.
+The cases of utter or partial destitution of clothing
+among families who reside permanently on the Labrador
+coast, were numerous, and much timely aid
+was given, especially to women and children. Food
+was also given in cases of extreme destitution.
+Many families were thus helped to provide for the
+long, cold winter of this region. There is no doubt
+that every spring some families are driven to subsist
+on mussels and seaweed they can gather along
+the land-wash. With ice on the coast no help can
+reach them.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Distribution of Books, Periodicals, and Tracts.</span></p>
+
+<p>A very large supply of wholesome literature was
+carried on board the Mission ship, and, wherever<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>
+she went, was freely distributed among the fishermen.
+Wherever it was found in any family that
+any one could read, a gift was made either of illustrated
+or plain literature, or both.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Religious Services.</span></p>
+
+<p>Wherever the <em>Albert</em> or <em>Princess May</em> called, when
+opportunity offered, especially on Sundays, religious
+services were held, which all were invited to attend.
+Hymns were sung, prayers offered, and simple addresses
+given on Scriptural subjects. These services
+were much appreciated among these lonely
+sea-toilers; and thus something was done to make
+known that Gospel which has brought such blessings
+to mankind, but without any reference to
+creed or sect being made.</p>
+
+<p>The steam launch, <em>Princess May</em>, proved to be of
+great service in the Mission work. Dr. Grenfell
+was enabled to go up uncharted bays in her, so as
+to visit a large number of the small settlements
+which would otherwise not have been within reach.
+He was thus able to make a thorough examination
+into the condition of the residents, and to collect
+accurate statistical information regarding them to an
+extent never before attempted. In all, he visited
+eighty-seven different settlements on the Labrador
+coast, as far north as Okkak. Dr. Curwen, in the
+<em>Albert</em>, visited thirty-five more settlements; and Dr.
+Bobardt visited all the places in the vicinity of
+Battle Harbour.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">APPENDIX D</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE</em></p>
+
+
+<p>To gauge as accurately as possible the condition
+of the people, we prepared as full a census of
+them—of their belongings, their families, and their
+accomplishments—as we could. In this, during three
+years, I have had the assistance of four medical men
+besides myself, of the resident missionaries on the
+coast, and of the Moravian brethren further north.</p>
+
+<p>We find the people, as a rule, very poor, often
+reduced to the verge of starvation. The causes we
+believe to be (1) depletion of fisheries and fur-bearing
+animals, and bad seasons. (2) Inability to replenish
+traps, guns, nets, boats, etc., when worn out.
+(3) Inability to secure proper clothing and supplies
+of food when once they become overwhelmed in debt.
+These causes have led to (4) loss of energy, apathy,
+and even despair.</p>
+
+<p>There are some families still comfortably off, but
+these are impoverished by their own generosity,
+which impels them continually to assist their poorer
+brethren. Where they are still well off, it is generally
+because they have a number of grown-up unmarried
+sons, or are in some harbour well separated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>
+from other settlers. This last fact is more patent as
+one travels north. The census papers are in my
+possession now. I will quote here some bad cases.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Two families here quite destitute. R—— R——
+and L—— R——. There was neither tea, molasses,
+nor flour in either house, and their clothing was
+literally dropping to pieces, while one boy was barefoot
+and the others had boots tied on to their
+feet by string to keep the pieces together. If ever
+hunger wrote its name clearly on people’s faces it
+was written on these people’s, the children being
+pale and bloodless, the woman haggard and careworn.
+The mother told me, in most pathetic way,
+“Even the berries will be covered deep in snow soon,
+and then we have only starvation to look to.” They
+had <em>no flour to face the winter</em>, and apparently no
+means of obtaining any. Neither family had seal
+nets, salmon nets, or cod nets, or could pay for twine
+to braid any, and both men showed me their powder-horns
+and shot-bags empty, or nearly so. I found on
+returning to the launch, the captain had given his
+bag of biscuits away to these people.</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. T. G.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>A—— P——. Seven children, very poor and ill-clad;
+very poor supply of food, miserable hut, no
+nets. The lay reader<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> found three inches of snow
+blow in and remain on the floor of the only room one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>
+night in winter he slept here. He found one counterpane
+and a pair of man’s trousers almost all the
+clothing the children had, including the eldest, a girl
+of fourteen. These had to stay indoors, of course,
+all winter.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Mr. Dicks, of Cartwright.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="right">W. T. G.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>S—— B——. Seven children. Very poor, very
+naked, short of food, no apparatus to kill fish except
+a few hooks. Miserable one-roomed hut.</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. T. G.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>E—— O——. Wife and two undergrown boys;
+father has consumption. All very badly clothed; not
+a single flannel garment among them. No blankets;
+bedclothes in rags. One trout net; caught only
+enough fish for their consumption. Nine quintals
+last year, with which cleared part of his debt, and
+got one barrel of flour and two pounds of tea for his
+“winter diet.” Shot some birds and one seal. Now
+there is nothing but three pounds of broken biscuits
+in the house.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Eliot Curwen.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">APPENDIX E</p>
+
+<p class="center"><em>THE FISHING SCHOONERS</em></p>
+
+
+<p>I have spoken of these in a general way. Here
+are a few specimens of notes from our diaries as
+to numbers of crews and “freighters” carried.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+B——. 34 tons. Crew, 7 men and 2 women.<br>
+Passengers, 19 men and 16 women.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>A total of 44 souls. All passengers in one hold—no
+partitions. 23 days out from home.</p>
+
+<p>
+F——. 19 tons. Crew, 6 men and 1 woman.<br>
+Passengers, 28 men and 15 women.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>A total of 50 souls. No name or register on her.</p>
+
+<p>
+I——. 50 tons. Crew, 8 men and 2 women.<br>
+Passengers, 75 men and 15 women.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>A total of 100 souls. Measured cubic space of one
+man, his wife, boy, girl, and two men, 8 ft. by 6 ft.
+by 3 ft.</p>
+
+<p>
+X——. <em>Brigantine</em>, 116 tons. 66 men, 24 women.<br>
+<br>
+Y——. Small schooner-rigged vessel, 5 tons.<br>
+4 men, 1 woman, etc.<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The larger merchants all send their crews down
+in steamers. This has the double advantage of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>
+securing better accommodation, and immensely
+shortening the passage. We are all strongly of
+the opinion that nothing can be said in defence of
+allowing girls to form part of the regular crews of
+the green-fish catchers, or of any fishing vessel.
+It appears to be necessary that women should go
+down as passengers; and with proper provisions
+there is no reason why they should not do so.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the result of an accident to such a vessel
+this year. Unfortunately I did not ascertain her
+tonnage.</p>
+
+<p>On Thursday, the 14th inst., we left Spaniard’s
+Bay, bound to Horse Harbour, Labrador, on a fishing
+voyage, having on board a number of sixty-two
+souls, comprising men, women, and children. All
+went well, until about eight miles north-east of
+Partridge Point (White Bay). On the 17th inst., at
+4 p.m., Sunday, while in a dense fog, the vessel
+struck a large pan of ice, which crushed her bows
+in, causing her to fill and sink in about eight or
+ten minutes. Five or six men succeeded in getting
+on the pan of ice with a line, and secured it as
+best they could to the pan. Unfortunately it could
+not be secured on board, owing to the dreadful
+panic which was taking place; so she fell off a
+considerable distance from the pan, preventing any
+one from getting on the ice. A few boats were
+then thrown over, but before any one could be
+taken on board the boats, the vessel sank, leaving
+men, women and children floating among the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>
+wreckage in the water. Some of the few boats
+filled, and were upset, leaving only two to pick up
+the men, women and children, who were then struggling
+for their lives in the water. After a very
+hard fight we managed to save fifty (including who
+were in the boats), leaving twelve poor souls to
+meet a watery grave, namely, eight men, two boys,
+and two young women. Some of the women and
+children were almost totally naked, having jumped
+out of bed, and had not time to even catch their
+clothes. These would have undoubtedly died before
+many hours were over, as they were both wet and
+naked, had not the schooner <em>Irene</em>, Captain Bursey,
+of Catalina, arrived at this opportune moment, and
+quickly got us on board, and brought us into
+Coachman’s Cove.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">I am, respectfully yours,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Henry Gosse</span>,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">Late Master of Schooner <em>Rose</em>.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Spaniard’s Bay</span>, <em>June 28th, 1894</em>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<p class="center"><strong>Butler &amp; Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.</strong></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 ***</div>
+</body>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this book outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+book #75927 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75927)